By Gokul Varadharaj, CRO, Abacus Insights

The HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition returned to Las Vegas in March 2026, bringing together thousands of healthcare leaders, clinicians, and innovators to explore the technologies and strategies shaping the future of health.

While the vast majority of HIMSS attendees came from providers, payers – while small in number – held impactful presentations and conversations.

From those moments, we gleaned a clear set of themes. Read on for what I think will matter most to U.S. health plans making technology and IT investments in 2026.

1. Payers Operationalize Responsible AI
Facing shrinking profit margins and rising medical costs, the health plan leaders I spoke with emphasized accelerating the adoption of responsible, human-in-the-loop powered AI across their operations, with the goal of stabilizing medical loss ratios and transforming their enterprises.

Providers, in recent years, have invested in AI-assisted clinical documentation and coding technologies, leading to an increase in coding intensity. Yet to date, AI at many plans has been relegated to member chatbots, document processing, and other non-core functions.

But at HIMSS26, payer leaders shared plans to integrate AI into core business processes: underwriting, risk adjustment, quality improvement, payment integrity, and prior authorization.

2. Getting Serious: CMS Interoperability and Information Blocking
In a keynote HIMSS presentation, CMS once again signaled that interoperability is central to the federal vision for health system transformation.

For the past two years, compliance with CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS-0057-F) has been top of mind for U.S. health plans participating in federal programs. January 1, 2027 marks the final deadline for compliance. While some plans may have hoped for a waiver or extension, my gut says CMS is not backing down.

I expect additional policies and initiatives in the coming years that will expand and refine interoperability mandates. Some evidence:

• CMS is spearheading an API-focused data exchange framework to enable the sharing of patient medical records through a new initiative that calls on plans and provides to become a CMS Aligned Network. Companies pledge to accelerate data sharing at a faster pace than can be achieved through regulations alone.
• Additional rules such as HTI-4 and the proposed HTI-5 further advance interoperability objectives.
• HHS is signaling a shift to active enforcement of information blocking rules, with civil monetary penalties of up to $1M per violation for health IT vendors and exchange networks.

“Data liquidity” is the new buzzword.

3. A Strong, Usable Data Layer Is the Core of AI Transformation
It’s no secret that data is the foundational asset for AI-driven competitive advantage.

Many payers will run AI-powered experiments across various parts of their organizations, but success will hinge on the integrity and usability of their crown-jewel data.

The health plan executives we spoke with shared a common goal: building a context-aware, reusable data foundation. Many already have initiatives underway.

The challenge, given limited time and resources, is deciding whether to invest in building that data layer in-house, or to prioritize high-impact AI use cases where tangible business value can be realized more quickly.

Our clients are letting us accelerate their data management process by building the pipelines, mappings, cleansing, normalization, and integrations that work across dozens of legacy systems. That frees them to focus on higher value AI work.

In a market moving this fast, our goal is to help health plans keep up with deep-pocketed rivals and focus on what matters.

At HIMSS26, we heard that data is strategic. But knowing what to build and what to buy is the real strategy.