In Haiti, slight progress for LGBT rights is seen as victory

Gay-rights activists are cautiously raising their profile in Haiti — even as their community faces pervasive hostility.

Two proposed anti-LGBT laws are pending in Parliament. The major churches are firm in their condemnation of homosexuality. Police remain unsympathetic to victims of anti-gay violence.

At the same time, activists say there has been incremental progress. Their organizations have become more ambitious in lobbying for greater equality and against discrimination. And they have been welcomed into some broader civil-society initiatives, including events supported by Haiti's first lady.

Yaisah Val, 46, right, a transgender woman walks with her husband Richecarde Val, 28, in a street market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 12, 2018. Richecarde experienced religious disapproval firsthand. When he told his father, a Protestant pastor, that he planned to marry a transgender woman, his father replied, "You know that's the devil." (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, left, a transgender woman, sits next to her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in the clothing store they own with a friend in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 13, 2018. Her situation is indicative of the struggle for LGBT rights in Caribbean nations like Haiti, where incremental progress toward acceptance is seen as a major step in the face of deep-rooted cultural opposition to gays. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, left, a transgender woman, talks with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, as she irons his shirt at their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 12, 2018. Val started her gender transition at age 29 in Haiti and completed it five years later with sex-reassignment surgery in Philadelphia. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, talks with her husband, Richecarde, 28, at their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 12, 2018. She and her husband are seeking to raise funds to open a first-of-its-kind shelter for transgender Haitians that would help them pursue an education and get appropriate health care. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, holds her cellphone displaying a picture when she was a five-year-old boy, at her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 14, 2018. Val started her gender transition at age 29 in Haiti and completed it five years later with sex-reassignment surgery in Philadelphia. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, left, a transgender woman, laughs with Charlot Jeudy, center, president of Kouraj, Haiti's leading LGBT-rights group, at their office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 13, 2018. At right is her husband, Richecarde Val, 28. Jeudy founded the group in 2011, seeking to counter anti-gay sentiment that intensified after the previous year's devastating earthquake. "More and more young people, bringing their skills, are getting engaged in our fight," he says. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

In this Nov. 14, 2015 photo, "Rihana" poses for a picture before the start of a gay beauty contest in Grand Goave, Haiti. Among the 1,089 respondents in a 2017 survey commissioned by Haiti's Health Ministry, 90 percent rejected the idea of equal rights for LGBT people and 75 percent said Haiti should ban gays and lesbians from entering the country. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

In this Nov. 14, 2015 photo, before the start of a gay beauty contest, people hold candles in memory of fellow LGBT community members who were victims of violence, in Grand Goave, Haiti. In 2017, Haiti's Senate passed two bills targeting LGBT Haitians. One would formalize a ban on same-sex marriage, and prohibit public demonstrations in favor of LGBT rights. The other would include gays among categories of people who could be denied a "certificate of good standing" _ a document required as part of many job applications. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

In this Nov. 15, 2015 photo, "Francesca" competes in a gay beauty contest in Grand Goave, Haiti. Among the 1,089 respondents in a 2017 survey commissioned by Haiti's Health Ministry, 90 percent rejected the idea of equal rights for LGBT people and 75 percent said Haiti should ban gays and lesbians from entering the country. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

In this Nov. 23, 2015 photo, Jean Richardson Joubert 32, foreground, poses for a photo with his partner, Stanley Desire 28, inside his bedroom in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 2017, Haiti's Senate passed two bills targeting LGBT Haitians. One would formalize a ban on same-sex marriage, and prohibit public demonstrations in favor of LGBT rights. The other would include gays among categories of people who could be denied a "certificate of good standing" _ a document required as part of many job applications. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, watches a movie with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 14, 2018. Val recently came out publicly as a transgender woman on YouTube, a potentially risky move in a country like Haiti where LGBT residents face pervasive hostility in most spheres of public life. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

Richecarde Val, 28, embraces his wife, Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 14, 2018. Val says she's developed a supportive fan base _ many of them straight people and mothers who gratefully view her as a role model for their transgender daughters. (AP PhotoDieu Nalio Chery)

SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--

Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/

Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.

This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.

Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.

“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”

The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:

“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”

About Availity

Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Abridge

Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.

Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.

Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation