Last November, we had the pleasure of convening 41 health system CFOs from across the country at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Ariz. In three packed days, participants discussed key financial and management challenges on a variety of topics including ambulatory expansion, RCM, AI deployment, and the political landscape.

In our previous roundup of key insights from the Fall CSO Forum, we discussed how CSOs are increasingly focused on short-term operational needs. In some ways, we saw the converse at our Fall CFO Forum: health system CFOs (who are typically focused on their systems’ immediate financial needs) are often also playing a key role in strategic transformation. The upshot of these trends is that CSOs and CFOs are working together more closely than ever to balance their systems’ short-term and long-term needs.

Therefore, we wanted to provide our strategy readers a look at where CFOs around the country are generally focused. We’ll share several key themes that cropped up in discussions at the Fall CFO Forum and highlight a few examples and case studies that were discussed. In some instances, we’ll anonymize quotes and specific examples to preserve the privacy of attendees who spoke candidly about sensitive topics.