HIMSS26 at the Venetian Convention Center in Las Vegas
March 9-12, 2026 the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition is where the entire healthcare ecosystem converges including providers, payers, startups, pharma/life sciences, investors, and public sector leaders. All in one high-efficiency environment built to drive decisions, shorten sales cycles, and fuel real business outcomes. With over 600 educational sessions and several must hear keynotes, what will you be listening to?
Monday, March 9
CMS 0057 and ePrior Authorization: What Providers and Payers Need to Know
10:35 AM – 11:15 AM
Level 5 Palazzo L – part of Interoperability & HIE Preconference Forum, additional registration required.
The CMS 0057 final rule is reshaping how healthcare organizations handle prior authorizations. This session will equip providers and payers with the knowledge they need to understand regulatory obligations, prepare for compliance deadlines, and optimize their electronic prior authorization workflows for improved efficiency and patient care.
1:35 PM – 2:15 PM
Level 5 Palazzo L – part of Interoperability & HIE Preconference Forum, additional registration required.
As healthcare delivery becomes increasingly complex, managed care organizations must leverage comprehensive pharmacy interoperability to optimize patient outcomes, control costs, and streamline operations. This session examines critical use cases where pharmacy integration transforms managed care delivery, from real-time medication reconciliation and prior authorization workflows to population health management and value-based care initiatives. Participants will explore practical implementation strategies, overcome common integration challenges, and discover how seamless pharmacy data exchange enables proactive medication management, reduces adverse events, and supports coordinated care across the entire healthcare ecosystem.
Tuesday, March 10
Tech Rationalization for Healthcare Cyber Readiness
10:10 AM – 10:30 AM
Cybersecurity Command Center Level 1: The Park (Hall G) Booth 10001
More tools, more dashboards, same headaches. Security fails at the seams: ownership, handoffs, vendor access, downtime. This session shows how to spot overlap, identify the real owners, and simplify what you already have so your team can respond faster and recover more cleanly.
Speaker
Russell Teague, Chief Strategy and Security Officer, Fortified Health Security
Interoperability – The Key Infrastructure for the Future Healthcare System
10:45 AM – 11:05 AM
Interop+Smart Experience Level 1: The Park (Hall G) Booth 12511
Interoperability is the “invisible” infrastructure powering the next generation of care—from AI-enabled diagnostics to hospital-at-home models—and it underpins the U.S. policy agenda for data fluidity. By embracing HL7 standards, organizations aren’t just checking a compliance box; they’re building a compelling ROI case by reducing administrative friction and strengthening the long-term financial and operational sustainability of health systems. This digital foundation ultimately gives clinicians their time back by shifting effort away from data entry and toward meaningful care and helps create a healthcare system that works better for everyone.
Speaker
Rachel Dunscombe, CEO, Health Level Seven International
Improving Medicaid Outcomes with Digital Equity and Nutrition Support
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Level 3 Murano 3304
Medicaid providers face growing expectations to address access to healthy foods, access to the internet, and resources for digital literacy as core non-medical drivers of poor health. This session explores a real-world model for integrating screening, care coordination and community partnerships into clinical workflows to improve health equity. Attendees will learn how a network of federally qualified healthcare centers implemented structured digital access and nutrition screening, captured more than 21,000 digital responses and used data to inform targeted interventions. Findings show how gaps in connectivity, device access and food security impact care engagement—and how leveraging community healthcare workers and digital navigators can bridge these divides. The session will offer scalable strategies for embedding whole-person care practices into value-based models, supporting better outcomes for underserved populations.
Speakers
Luke Hansen, Chief Medical Officer, Arcadia
Kim Prendergast, VP, Policy and Strategy, Community Care Cooperative (C3)
Artificial Intelligence in Action: Clinical Process Maps Get Modern
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Level 5 Palazzo D
Clinical Process Maps (CPMs) are critical for care standardization but are costly, slow to create and challenging to integrate into real-world workflows. This session outlines how an organization used artificial intelligence (AI) to automate CPM creation, standardize care delivery, and scale decision support integration in one of the largest health systems in the U.S. to create medical expense savings. This session will also showcase how this example of AI in action can improve care quality, efficiency and consistency—aspects of care delivery growing in importance as the industry shifts from fee-for-service to fee-for-value. Attendees will walk away with a scalable model that other health systems can use to achieve measurable savings by automating the translation of clinical guidance, integrating that guidance into provider workflows and driving provider adherence to CPMs.
Speakers
Logan Masta, Director, Special Projects, Arcadia
Stephen Bogner, Consultant, Strategy Office, Intermountain Health
Rural Case Management: Lowering Utilization and Healthcare Costs
2:15 PM – 3:15 PM
Level 5 Palazzo C
Rural communities face unique healthcare hurdles. This session unveils a blueprint for advancing community health in these underserved areas, focusing on a Primary Care Case Management model. This approach effectively targets non-clinical drivers of health at the community level, empowering rural hospitals to lead local care coordination and unlocking new funding streams for managing both clinical and non-clinical needs. This session will explore the lessons learned and interim findings from Missouri’s Transformation of Rural Community Health (ToRCH) pilot program, specifically designed to tackle the unique complexities of rural Medicaid populations. It will delve into the application of data-driven, community-based strategies to effectively manage chronic diseases, reduce disparities, and mitigate the impact of non-clinical drivers of health. Attendees will gain actionable insights and a clear roadmap for replicating this success to foster healthier, more resilient communities.
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Level 5 Palazzo E
Agentic AI introduces new challenges around integration, data access, governance, and reliability. In this physician focused roundtable, leaders will discuss why most agentic use cases today remain constrained to non-sensitive or hybrid workflows, and what prevents broader roll out. The conversation will explore how agents interact with existing EHRs and siloed systems, how actions are audited and why human-in-the-loop models remain essential at this stage, for certain workflows. Participants will examine whether incremental autonomy can still deliver meaningful value and the requirements for clinicians to start progressively trusting agentic AI.
Speakers
Edward Lee, Chief Medical Officer, Nabla
R. Ryan Sadeghian, Chief Medical Information Officer, University of Toledo
Bita Behrouzi, Physician, Maine Medical Center, Portland
Doug McKee, Chief Medical Information Officer, Orlando Health
Wednesday, March 11
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Level 3 San Polo 3404
This panel convenes leaders from the inaugural National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Bulk FHIR Cohort to unpack what it really takes to implement regulated FHIR APIs for HEDIS reporting, sharing candid perspectives, hard-won technical lessons, and the policy ripple effects shaping what comes next. Expect practical takeaways, real-world insights, and a look at how collaboration is accelerating quality measurement at scale.
Ransomware Resilience: Ensuring Patient Care Continuity Under Cyber Attack
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Level 5 Palazzo K
Ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations continue to rise in frequency, cost, and patient impact. Unlike other industries, downtime in hospitals is measured not just in lost revenue but in delayed diagnoses, canceled procedures, and direct threats to patient safety. In fact, by 2026, industry projections warn that 60% of hospitals may experience disruptions to care delivery due to ransomware. This looming reality underscores the need for true resilience, not just prevention, to withstand and recover from attacks without compromising care.
Speaker
Scott Doerr, Virtual CISO (vCISO), Fortified Health Security
Thursday, March 12
Morning Keynote
A Revolutionary Vision for American Healthcare Transformation: CMS‘s Roadmap for Now and the Future
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Level 2 | Venetian C
The US healthcare system stands at an unprecedented inflection point where technology serves as the catalyst that will revolutionize the patient-provider relationship, eliminate bureaucratic burden, combat fraud and waste, and restore America’s health to greatness.
Speakers
Hal Wolf, President and CEO, HIMSS
Mehmet Oz, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Kimberly Brandt, COO and Deputy Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Amy Gleason, Administrator & Senior Advisor, U.S. DOGE Service & CMS
Empowering Rural Healthcare: Strategic Leap with Generative Artificial Intelligence
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Level 5 Palazzo C
Rural healthcare often faces distinct hurdles. Hear the inspiring story of Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, which successfully navigated these challenges by strategically adopting Generative AI. Learn how they leveraged a variety of resources available to rural health systems and began using this technology to bridge gaps, empower their workforce and ultimately better serve their community.
Reimagining Rural Health: The Triple Play of AI, Workforce Transformation, and Agreement Management
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Level 5 Palazzo N
Rural communities face an escalating care-access crisis driven by workforce shortages, fragmented data, and persistent trust barriers that limit participation in coordinated care and research. Closing these gaps will require more than point solutions. It calls for a “triple play” approach that connects AI-enabled insights, workforce transformation, and modern agreement management across care delivery, community health, and public sector health programs. This panel will explore how rural health ecosystems can modernize traditionally paper-based processes and break down silos to connect patients, care teams, and community organizations with resources that may not be local, including regional specialists and virtual services. We will examine how community-based teams can evolve from traditional navigators into tech-enabled “Care Stewards,” equipped to act on AI-driven risk signals, support longitudinal care coordination, and operationalize secure, auditable agreement workflows that protect patients while accelerating care.
Preparing Your Mid-Revenue Cycle from Conversion to Optimization
11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Level 5 Palazzo C
System conversions represent one of the most complex and high-impact transformations a healthcare organization can undertake. These transitions influence clinical workflows, financial outcomes and overall operational stability. Among the most vulnerable areas is the mid-revenue cycle—where clinical documentation, coding accuracy and charge capture converge to support compliant and complete reimbursement. This executive-level session will provide strategic guidance on how to protect and optimize the mid-revenue cycle throughout the system conversion process. Designed for Chief Financial Officers, Chief Information Officers, and Revenue Integrity leaders, the session focuses on sustaining revenue integrity, ensuring accurate charge capture and mitigating disruptions across departments.
Moderated by: Amy Dickerson-Bass, VP, Revenue Integrity Professional Services, The Craneware Group
Speakers
Brian Patterson, Senior Director, Revenue Integrity, Tufts Medicine
Barbara Fisher, Corporate Director, Revenue Integrity, Shriners Children’s
A Rural Health System’s Leapfrog Improvement Using Smarter Medication Guidance
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Level 3 San Polo 3404
After becoming newly independent, St Mary’s Healthcare system faced a critical challenge: how to maintain our community’s trust in the quality and safety of our care without the infrastructure of a large healthcare system. With limited resources, and a goal to improve our Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.
At the Mobile Tech Theater Booth
T-Mobile Tech Theater Booth #5643
From Network to Outcome: Enabling Healthcare Transformation Through the Right Ecosystem
Tuesday: 4:00 PM
John Tonthat, Chief Revenue Officer, Cellhub Enterprise
Todd Ketterman, Executive Advisor, Healthcare Digital Transformation, CDW
Hospitals Without Walls: Together Transforming Rural Healthcare Through Connectivity
Wednesday: 2:00 PM
John Tonthat, Chief Revenue Officer, Cellhub Enterprise
Wes Rhodes, Strategist & CTO, Freeman Health System
Todd Ketterman, Executive Advisor, Healthcare Digital Transformation, CDW
Hospitals Without Walls: Reimagining Rural Healthcare Through Workflow, Connectivity, and Data
Thursday: 11:00 AM
John Tonthat, Chief Revenue Officer, Cellhub Enterprise
Todd Ketterman, Executive Advisor, Healthcare Digital Transformation, CDW
At The Interop+Smart Experience Pavilion
Venetian Level 1 — 12517 — Interop+Smart Experience
Join HL7 International hosting three full days of informative sessions led by some of the industry’s best subject matter experts.