What AMGA 2026 Revealed About the Future of Healthcare
The American Medical Group Association’s (AMGA) 2026 Annual Conference in Las Vegas was both inspiring and thought-provoking, as leaders came together to navigate a tech-driven, cost-constrained reality. At the heart of the discussion was a central question: How can we achieve financial sustainability and operational efficiency while transforming the human experience for both patients and clinicians?
Across conversations, a consistent set of themes emerged. Margins are tightening, particularly for smaller and independent groups, as labor costs rise and reimbursement models continue to shift. Patient access remains one of the most persistent and unresolved challenges, with organizations struggling to keep up with demand amid ongoing staffing constraints. At the same time, interest in AI is growing, but many leaders are still early in understanding how to apply it beyond initial use cases in a way that meaningfully improves performance.
Building on the conversations and insights from the week, we’ve synthesized the most impactful themes shaping the future of care. Here are our top four takeaways from AMGA 2026.
Takeaway #1: A system under pressure depends on measurable outcomes
The healthcare industry is operating under sustained financial pressure as rising costs outpace reimbursement across payers. Medicare reimbursement alone has declined by more than 30% on an inflation-adjusted basis, underscoring the scale of the challenge.
At AMGA’s CEO Forum, Joe Bernadello, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IKS Health, emphasized that in this environment, incremental improvements are no longer sufficient to sustain clinical or financial viability. Healthcare needs to rethink how work is executed across the patient journey through a system of action, powered by a combination of agentic AI and human expertise that understands the full patient journey, anticipates what comes next, and completes the work. When this level of execution is achieved, the impact is measurable. Patients benefit from better access, and continuity of care, clinicians and care teams regain valuable time, provider organizations unlock margin for improved financial performance and sustainable growth, and payers achieve lower, more predictable costs of care.
To support this shift, healthcare organizations are beginning to expect more from their partners. The focus is moving beyond delivery to accountability, with an emphasis on performance tied to financial and operational outcomes.
Takeaway #2: AI conversations have evolved from hype to impact
AI is beginning to show real impact, and the tone across the industry is noticeably more optimistic than a year ago. At the same time, a meaningful gap in AI literacy remains. Many leaders are still unsure how to apply it beyond early use cases like ambient documentation, while expectations are quickly shifting toward solutions that reduce operational cost and support real workflow execution. This is driving a move away from point solutions toward more integrated, platform-based approaches that can orchestrate work across the patient journey and deliver tangible performance improvement.
This approach has the potential to curb rising labor costs and offset shrinking reimbursement margins by automating complex, high-value tasks across the entire patient journey. As a result, success is no longer measured by technology adoption alone, but by the measurable financial and clinical outcomes that it delivers. When applied within connected workflows, this can translate into meaningful performance gains, including 3 to 5 percent cost reduction and 4 to 5 percent revenue lift.
Takeaway #3: Patient access is still the biggest unsolved problem
Patient access surfaced as one of the most consistent challenges across conversations at AMGA. Despite years of investment, most organizations still struggle with schedule optimization, patient financial clearance, and engagement in a way that is both efficient for the system and best for the patient. Consequently, organizations are prioritizing strategic investments in AI-driven scheduling to ensure that every time slot is optimized for both clinical care and financial performance.
At AMGA 2026, Mayank Pant, EVP of Product and Innovation at IKS Health, shared that by applying behavioral intelligence, organizations can move beyond generic outreach to a patient-first approach to improving patient access. Rather than treating scheduling, engagement, and patient financial clearance as separate steps, this approach focuses on understanding how patients move through the process and where they are most likely to disengage. True patient engagement leverages predictive insights to anticipate appointment adherence and payment likelihood, enabling healthcare providers to tailor the right channel, message, and timing.
There is growing momentum toward more coordinated approaches that bring these elements together, helping reduce friction, improve follow-through, and make better use of existing capacity. This is the direction IKS Health is focused on as part of its broader work in patient access and engagement through the recently launched MyCareHub.
Takeaway #4: Sustaining medical group independence requires a new financial model
Independent medical groups continue to value autonomy, but maintaining financial stability is becoming increasingly challenging, especially for smaller organizations facing mounting margin pressure. Profitability is further strained by evolving risk adjustment models and value-based care payment shifts, which, in some cases, are destabilizing traditional financial structures. In this environment, accountable partnerships are emerging as a critical pathway to preserve independence while restoring financial and operational stability.
At AMGA, there was a noticeable shift in how partnerships are being evaluated. Rather than engaging vendors to solve isolated problems, organizations are looking for models that can support broader financial and operational performance. The focus is moving toward more accountable relationships that tie execution directly to outcomes, with shared expectations around performance, efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
In a panel discussion, Dr. David Russian, CEO of Western Washington Medical Group, spoke to the importance of this shift. The experience highlighted how a more integrated approach, connecting clinical, operational, and revenue workflows, can help stabilize performance while giving time back to clinicians and care teams.
Partnerships like these are built on a shared accountability framework, where success is measured by outcomes, not just services delivered. With aligned incentives and shared risk, they are designed to reduce clinical and administrative burden, alleviate burnout, and create operational scale, while empowering groups to remain independent.
The focus at AMGA 2026 was clear: staying ahead now demands bold, collaborative thinking and rapid execution. This is best realized by migrating AI from fragmented tools to a continuous, integrated function and focusing on a patient-first approach to access and engagement, optimized through behavioral intelligence. By anchoring these efforts in improving the patient and clinician experience, supported by accountable partnerships, organizations can drive operational excellence and financial stewardship while maintaining independence.
