Listen to our debrief of The Health Management Academy's Spring 2026 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Forum. In our debrief, we shared what these executives discussed with their peers, including what CFOs are working on right now.
Below are key takeaways for what is top of mind for CSOs and what you need to know going into your next conversation with them:
AI May Be Reshaping the Front Door to Care. Consumer AI tools are already influencing how patients — especially younger ones — seek healthcare information, with some systems reporting early volume declines they attribute to this shift. CSOs are stepping directly into AI strategy, recognizing the implications for patient acquisition, capital planning, and long-term care relationships.
ASC Strategy Defies a Single Playbook. Health systems are accelerating ASC investment, but decisions around physician equity, branding, and geography vary widely by market — and getting the structure wrong early can erode alignment over time. Cannibalization risk and the national anesthesia shortage add further complexity to an already uneven growth picture.
Ambulatory Growth Often Struggles to Secure Capital on Its Own Terms. Ambulatory investments frequently compete against hospital projects in the same capital pool, leaving growth plans stalled despite broad strategic alignment. Rising construction costs and shifting consumer behavior — particularly younger patients gravitating toward walk-in access — are adding urgency to a governance problem that most systems haven't resolved.
Health Systems Are Searching for a Stronger Voice in Washington. With programs like 340B under scrutiny and traditional advocacy losing effectiveness, CSOs are questioning whether blanket resistance to reform is still a viable posture. A fragmented industry — for-profits, academic centers, rural hospitals, and nonprofits — makes a unified message difficult to sustain at a moment when one is most needed.
Treating Service Lines as Products Is Gaining Interest — but Organizational Structures Lag Behind. Some systems are redesigning care delivery around patient personas rather than physician convenience, with early traction in end-to-end workflow redesign across virtual, ambulatory, and specialty settings. The approach is revealing how much existing governance and capital structures were built for a different model — and how much work remains to realign them.