HFMA 2026: AI front and center

National Harbor, Md. - AI is indeed in the spotlight at the HFMA conference.

The Healthcare Financial Management Association’s annual conference is featuring plenty of conversations about artificial intelligence and its ever-growing adoption in the industry.

Healthcare financial leaders generally are expressing enthusiasm about AI. Dennis Dahlen, the chief financial officer at the Mayo Clinic, referenced AI’s potential as he received the the HFMA’s Richard L. Clarke Board of Directors Award Sunday. He cited AI as one of the reasons he thought the future of healthcare delivery is as bright as it’s ever been.

Healthcare financial leaders generally say they project AI to help organizations improve their business operations, particularly in revenue cycle management, with AI tools increasingly helping scheduling and billing.

Some also see AI reducing headaches with prior authorization, and leading to fewer clashes over reimbursement between health systems and insurers over paying claims. Mike Marks, executive vice president and chief financial officer of HCA Healthcare, expressed optimism about AI possibly improving the authorization process.

“When I think about the amount of transactions that happen between payers and providers, the potential for AI is unbelievable,” Marks said.

In addition, chief financial officers say they’re enthusiastic about AI reducing burdens on the healthcare workforce. They point to encouraging results from ambient documentation tools that summarize physician-patient conversations, helping doctors spend less time updating patient records. Some also pointed to the potential to use data from those conversations to help improve the patient experience. And some are pointing to the use of AI technology to identify patients who are due for screenings such as mammograms.

Some say they’re taking a more cautious approach to AI, including working on ensuring proper governance to ensure the safe deployment of new tools. But even those who are moving a bit more tentatively say their organizations are using AI, although they may be using it more in business operations than in clinical areas.

Still, financial leaders aren’t unanimous about AI’s ability to drive down healthcare costs, and affordability has been a hot topic at the conference. A survey of healthcare leaders by HFMA’s Vitalic Health found a solid 60% said they thought AI could help reduce the cost of care. But that means four out of 10 weren’t quite sure AI would necessarily lead to lower costs.

Financial leaders at the conference generally agreed that organizations need to be choosing AI tools to solve specific problems, rather than just buying solutions to follow trends. As expected at a conference of healthcare leaders, many stressed the importance of the ROI - the return on investment - when it comes to AI.