As health systems prepare for tightening regulatory frameworks and shifting reimbursement models, the concept of reimbursement resilience — sustaining predictable revenue in the face of policy uncertainty and operational complexity — is quickly becoming a key part of their strategy. That’s the insight from our recent survey of 100 health system CFOs, finance VPs, and clinical technology leaders. Conducted by Becker’s Healthcare and Net Health, the survey revealed a critical look into the priorities of health system leaders as they face an era of change, from regulation to innovation. The survey confirmed three clear trends.
- Regulatory uncertainty is redefining financial stability: While 42% expressed some level of optimism about possible changes to reimbursement policies under the new presidential administration, 38% were pessimistic and 20% were neutral. This climate of uncertainty is reflected in significant concerns around data privacy laws (28%), value-based care implementation (27%), and interoperability mandates (26%). Health system leaders expect technology solutions to ease the growing burden of compliance, not add to it. With so much happening — from AI implementation to value-based care — they expect technology to meet compliance benchmarks and ensure that their current infrastructure can adapt to change in a secure and stable way.
- Many view Artificial Intelligence (AI) with optimism, but others need more education: Nearly half (49%) of leaders see AI and advanced analytics as a solution for cost efficiency and ROI as it relates to reimbursement — and a quarter (26%) see significant potential there. Many, however, remain neutral (29%). Essentially, a majority of technology and finance respondents believe in AI’s potential to improve ROI and efficiency, but almost as many are unclear about its potential. Moving leaders from “maybe” to “yes” takes greater clarity and effective implementation processes, strong data governance, and proven privacy safeguards. Changes related to AI are also a concern: 23% cite AI compliance and the ethical use of predictive analytics as a top challenge in 2025/26.
- Effective payer integration continues to be a pain point for many: Overall, survey results show a split between those who have full integration (48%) and a slight majority (52%) who admit that their systems are only somewhat integrated with payers. From a broader perspective, effective integration across the board is top-of-mind; respondents site changes to interoperability standards as among their top three challenges in 2025/26.
The big picture in this unmistakable environment of change is that technology buyers are focused on creating resilience to protect from uncertainty — and they see technology as a solution if it improves the efficiency of their systems and staff, creates true and complete integration, and strengthens their organizational security infrastructure.
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