HIMSS President Hal Wolf Expresses Concern About Healthcare Funding
On Tuesday morning, March 4, Hal Wolf, the president and CEO of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), held a briefing for the press, expressing deep concern about the current funding issues.
“If you’re not concerned, I’d be more worried,” Wolf responded to a question about healthcare funding. Wolf expressed concern about funding levels. “If you listen to comments from the administration, there will be challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicare.” It’s not just a government issue; foundations could step in.
About 50 percent of healthcare is covered by the federal government, and challenges can be expected based on messaging from the government. “I'm not trying to overreact to what we hear, but I want to understand what we see. But am I concerned? Absolutely. How do I measure that level of concern or impact? I don't know.” “We can all safely assume we won’t have more money in 2026 than we have now.” “If you have money to invest in digital health, you want to find those tools as soon as possible, so you can really jump in,” Wolf said.
Cybersecurity is a major issue. Wolf answered a question on the subject from the press. “The federal government of the United States just announced that they were bringing down cybersecurity blockages against another foreign country.”
The four buckets that HIMSS is focused on globally are cybersecurity, workforce development, digital health transformation, and artificial intelligence (AI), Wolf highlighted. “We’re about 9 million short of clinicians on a global basis….in the next five to eight years, it’s going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-18 million.”
“What is the most misunderstood aspect of AI right now?” a journalist asked Wolf. “All hospitals have to assume the accountability and the use of AI,” Wolf answered, referring to Dr. Park’s keynote address earlier in the morning. “AI is there to be a suggestion tool, not a clinical decision support tool,” Wolf reiterated.
On a global basis, we remain dedicated to health equity, Wolf said. The health equity bar is high. With the use of AI in helping it, you are getting into interesting technology territory. There are built-in biases in AI, which people are working hard to remove.
Wolf estimated that HIMSS is being attended by 28,000 people this year, about which 11,000 are professional attendees. This has increased from last year, when it had 26,000 attendees, of which 10,000 were professionals. “We paid really close attention to the titles in terms of the number of decision-makers, which increased over last year. We obviously couldn’t be more delighted.” Wolf noted that about 200 people from the Department of Defense (DOD) were instructed by the government not to travel.
This year, the Global Healthcare Conference is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada. HIMSS is described as a global advisor, thought leader, and member-based society committed to reforming the global health ecosystem through the power of information and technology. HIMSS has served the global health community for over 60 years, with focused operations across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
