Forus vs Plenful (2026)
Both automate the path from a prescription to a patient getting the drug, from different seats. Forus, formerly Tandem, works at the point of prescribing inside the record: it generates and submits prior authorizations, handles appeals, routes to a pharmacy, verifies benefits and finds affordability programs, free to providers and patients and paid for by manufacturers. Plenful works in the pharmacy back office of health systems and specialty pharmacies: 340B claim screening and rebate reconciliation, rebuilt referrals, and intake, benefit investigation and prior authorization for specialty and infusion. A prescribing practice looks at Forus. A health system pharmacy or specialty pharmacy looks at Plenful.
- It acts at the moment of prescribing rather than after a claim is denied.
- Free to providers and patients, a genuine published price rather than a trial.
- One flow from prior authorization to pharmacy routing and affordability help.
- 340B work end to end: claim screening, missed savings, rebate reporting and Maximum Fair Price reconciliation.
- A referral agent reads clinical notes to rebuild referrals that were never coded.
- Named health system and infusion customers, with published results at Samaritan Health Services.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. Forus and Plenful are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | Forus | Plenful |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | RCM & Prior Auth AI | Healthcare Administrative Automation |
| Founded | 2022 | Not recorded |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States | San Francisco, California |
| Website | forus.com | plenful.com |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Product updates
The latest logged changes from each vendor, newest first, each linked to its source.
Plenful
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EHR / interoperability
Cencora said it has combined its benefit verification and electronic prior authorization network with Plenful's automation platform, so health system pharmacy teams can check access, out of pocket costs, formulary and prior authorization in one workflow.
Source
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
Forus, formerly Tandem (renamed in May 2026 with no change in ownership), is a medication access platform that automates the path from prescription to therapy at the point of prescribing.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Plenful automates pharmacy back-office work for health systems, specialty pharmacies and infusion teams, centered on the 340B drug pricing program. For covered entities it screens every 340B eligible claim, finds missed savings, automates rebate reporting and Maximum Fair Price reconciliation, and runs a Referral Agent that uses language models to read clinical notes and other record data, reconstruct referrals that were never coded, match them to claims and send referral documentation back to the referring provider.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do Forus and Plenful work with the EHR?
Forus says it integrates with all major or cloud-based record systems and picks up the prescription at the point of electronic prescribing; practices whose record system does not integrate can upload records when asked, and practices that do not e-prescribe are not yet supported.
With Plenful, the home page says the platform connects disparate systems through PDFs, flat files, APIs, HL7, SFTP and databases, with unlimited rules and crosswalks, and the Referral Agent sends referral documentation back to the referring provider "via major EHRs". It names no record system, third party administrator, pharmacy management system or ePA network with a method or a live site. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 25, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do Forus and Plenful handle patient data?
Forus says its platform is HIPAA compliant and that all protected health information is covered by a business associate agreement. Its privacy policy, updated May 2026, says it may create anonymized and aggregated information and 'may sell anonymized data and aggregated insights to customers and other third parties', and keeps personal information as long as needed for its purposes, including pharmacy regulations.
The agreement says Plenful may use service data, including protected health information, to generate outputs, classifications and workflow actions for the customer, and "will not use PHI to train models for the benefit of other Plenful customers". From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 25, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How much do Forus and Plenful leave to the clinician?
Forus says a clinician writes the prescription in the record as normal and Forus automatically generates and submits the prior authorization form, checks status with the plan, and routes the prescription to a pharmacy. When a request is denied the practice chooses the next step, such as starting an appeal that Forus drafts, and staff can follow every prescription in real time and step in.
In Plenful's case, the Referral Agent page describes shifting 340B teams from manual search to targeted review of claims the model flags with high confidence, with referral documentation generated and sent back to the referring provider, so a person reviews what the model surfaces. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 25, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers.
Both records were reviewed on this site in September 2026. Forus is paid by manufacturers, and its privacy policy says it may sell anonymized data and aggregated insights to third parties. Ask what data leaves your organization and whether the choice of pharmacy or program is ever influenced. It states SOC 2 Type 2 and puts all protected health information under a business associate agreement.
Plenful reports its own 4 percent miss rate beside a claim that its AI finds all revenue opportunities, and publishes no security attestation. Its customer agreement bars training on one customer's data for others. Its fee is framed as recovered savings; ask how it is calculated.