The Elephant in The Room at HIMSS25

As I strolled, coffee in hand, to an early morning panel on the last day of the HIMSS25 conference last week, I was joined by a woman from a PR firm. "Is it just me?" She whispered, looking around her, "Why is no one talking about what we need to talk about?" I didn't have to ask her what she was referring to.

With mass firings within national health agencies, restrictions imposed on messaging from health agencies, and anticipated cuts to healthcare funding, including Medicaid, one would expect conference attendees to have questions about what's to come and how potential changes will impact their organizations.

HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) was established over 60 years ago. The annual conference is one of the largest gatherings within the healthcare industry and attracts healthcare professionals worldwide. Over 28,000 people gathered this year for four days in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland wrote earlier this week that as we enter a period of incredible policy and payment uncertainty at the federal level, healthcare IT leaders nationwide are investing in and adopting newer information technologies more thoughtfully than ever. This must have been on the minds of many competing vendors and subject matter experts at the conference as they addressed the attendees.

The healthcare industry is under immense pressure to provide quality care with a looming staff shortage to protect itself against cyber threats while anticipating funding cuts. As panels of experts discussed the latest trends with artificial intelligence (AI), electronic health records' (EHR) advancements, and digital health investments, one had to wonder where the advice was for current and upcoming challenges within healthcare.

Of course, we are only a couple of months into the new administration, and we are still waiting to see what new policies will take hold, who will be affected, and in what way. With so many panels to choose from, we, editors of Healthcare Innovation, could only attend a few, so we don't know the extent of all the topics that came up during the various sessions.

It was not all quiet. Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, expressed an awareness of the current challenges and unknowns. "If you're not concerned, I'd be more worried," Wolf responded to a question from the press concerning healthcare funding. "If you listen to comments from the administration, there will be challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicare," Wolf said. "I'm not trying to overreact to what we hear, but I want to understand what we see. But am I concerned? Absolutely."

Admittedly, during the opening keynote session, Wolf stated that per the current policy and political landscape, "Scenario planning is necessary in the 'unsettled' policy and payment environment. We've built scenario planning into our sessions" at the conference. Wolf noted a Government Relations meeting, a Nursing Informatics meeting, a Public Policy Change-Making Luncheon, and a Public Policy Breakfast, which all incorporated scenario planning.

I did notice one session, which I could not make, entitled “Policy Ideas for DOGE and the Trump Administration”, which seemed like it would have addressed federal policies.

So, maybe attendees and experts did talk about "what we need to talk about." There may have been quiet one-on-one exchanges in the hallways and dinner conversations outside the conference.

"Perhaps people don't want to be political or too polite," I told the PR lady as we walked to the “Transforming Healthcare in a Payer-Driven World” session. She responded that it must be hard to consider new technologies and hear all these vendor pitches when having to worry about funding and what will happen. I nodded as we both found a seat.

This was my second time attending HIMSS, unlike our editor-in-chief, who attended 33 HIMSS conferences, making him a seasoned reporter of the conference and its sessions.