As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2026 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year, and boy, did they deliver. We, in fact, got so many responses to our prompt this year that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2026 Health IT Predictions!
Check out our community’s Healthcare Governance, Regulations, and Compliance predictions:
Robin Roberts, Director of Health IT Regulatory Affairs at PointClickCare
In 2026, healthcare will enter a new era of accountability, driven by CMS’s Transforming Episode-Based Accountability Model (TEAM). Success will depend on how well organizations connect data and collaboration across care settings to deliver measurably improved outcomes. Health systems that embrace this level of true continuity, from the operating room to skilled nursing and home care, will be best positioned to thrive in a value-based future where quality and cost are inseparable.
Bevey Miner, EVP, Healthcare Strategy and Policy at Consensus Cloud Solutions
In 2026, healthcare organizations will be preparing for the new FHIR authorization requirements, which mandate the implementation of several APIs to streamline the prior authorization process for Medicare Advantage plans by 2027. Yet for the industry’s ‘digital have-nots,’ those organizations that did not receive incentive dollars for EHR implementation, meeting these requirements is problematic. For example, rural health, along with post-acute providers and behavioral health, will need solutions for bridging the technology divide for prior authorizations to ensure timely treatment of patients.
John Bou, Co-Founder and COO at Modio Health
While AI will continue to dominate the conversation in 2026, I expect some pullback as regulation catches up with innovation, and we navigate patient wariness and accountability concerns amid a possible investment bubble burst. There will be an inevitable period of learning, making adjustments, and trial and error. A key question: where is AI’s value maximized, and where does human touch remain essential?
That balance will become even more delicate in high-stakes areas like provider credentialing. Some elements of credentialing simply can’t be automated without compromising accuracy, compliance, or patient safety. AI is already being used to scale the creation of fake credentials, something we need to combat early. We can expect healthcare organizations to create more structured procedures for integrating AI, underscoring that it should support, not replace, the people whose expertise safeguards care quality.
Norah Brennan, Vice President, Product Management at HealthAxis
Prior authorization mandates taking effect are going to drastically shift how health plans use prior authorizations for managing care. Two factors will drive this. First, as of 1/1/2026, the response time for authorizations reduces significantly; health plans must respond to standard authorizations within 7 days instead of the current 14-day requirement.
This requires plans to take a very focused look at their utilization management business processes and systems and ensure they are as efficient as possible every step of the way, including removing prior authorization requirements that have high approval rates or don’t provide the desired impact of directing care and costs.
And, second, as always, transparency drives behavior; also beginning in 2026, health plans must publish prior authorization statistics on their websites. Shining a light on rates of prior authorization approval, appeals, and turnaround times will certainly drive a change in how prior authorizations are used. It’s better to eliminate the prior authorization requirement than face the public scrutiny of rejection rates.
Fawad Butt, Co-Founder and CEO at Penguin Ai
AI is quickly redefining every aspect of healthcare, including data governance. As automation spreads across every workflow, governance must evolve from static guardrails to intelligent systems that learn and adapt alongside the models they oversee. Expect to see new leadership roles emerge to manage that shift, with the next generation of CIOs and CDOs focused on how intelligence is trained and applied. Over the next year, governance will move into the C-suite, becoming the foundation for safe and scalable AI.
Ernie Crawford, President & CEO at Crawford Technologies
In 2026, the harsh reality of CMS mandates and litigation will create an accessibility tipping point, forcing major health systems and payers to abandon the myth that accomplishing document accessibility at the composition level is the easy answer. The true realization will be that accessibility is fundamentally multichannel: alternative print accommodations such as braille, large print, and audio remain crucial and non-negotiable for millions.
After a year of failed, costly attempts, organizations will pivot to proven post-archive accessibility models. Organizations are realizing that this is the only viable path to deliver compliant accessibility for high-volume, transactional documents, including those containing PII/PHI. This shift will become the single most critical factor in mitigating compliance risk and delivering true patient health communications.
Elevsis Delgadillo, SVP, Customer Success at KeenStack
In 2026, the biggest shift won’t be new AI tools, but the pressure on health systems to govern them. Every SaaS vendor is flooding the market with AI, and the health systems that don’t get serious about governance will struggle to keep up. The organizations that succeed will be the ones that learn how to apply AI safely, build their own smaller models where it makes sense, and weave these tools directly into daily workflows.
Ram Krishnan, CEO at Valant
AI mental health companions will face their first real regulatory guardrails. 2026 will bring additional crackdown on AI chat companions, especially those offering mental health support without clinical guardrails. Today’s tools often aim to please and retain users rather than provide safe, evidence-based guidance, creating real risk for vulnerable individuals. Regulators will draw sharper lines around what constitutes a therapeutic device, requiring safety reviews, clear disclosures, and limits on clinical mimicry.
At the same time, payers and providers will begin favoring models backed by research and measurable outcomes, creating early frameworks for reimbursement. The result will be a shift from an anything-goes landscape to one where accountability and clinical validity determine which AI companions earn trust and adoption.
Annie Lambert, PharmD, BCSCP, Clinical Program Manager for Compliance Solutions for Clinical Surveillance & Compliance at Wolters Kluwer Health
In 2026, compounding pharmacies will remain in the spotlight, driven by demand for GLP-1 medications and heightened regulatory scrutiny as state boards move beyond basic implementation of USP standards. Compliance programs will mature, shifting from manual tasks to intelligent, integrated oversight, using AI-powered platforms to automate monitoring and documentation while connecting vendor systems. However, in-person checks and balances will remain essential to ensure accountability and quality. The Designated Person’s role will evolve into a strategic leadership position that balances advanced automation with hands-on validation to ensure safety and trust in a rapidly changing landscape.
Ronen Lavi, Co-Founder and CEO at Navina
In 2026, healthcare organizations will stop evaluating AI on automation and efficiency alone, and start demanding what I call ‘responsible ROI’: transparent algorithms, validated safety, and measurable improvements in clinical quality. With regulation still lagging behind the technology, the companies that win will be the ones that self-monitor for bias, track real clinical outcomes, and prove that they’re improving care rather than just generating more data. Trust will be a key feature, not an afterthought.
Sade Mokuolu, Regional Business Development Manager – Life Sciences at Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions
Increasingly stringent compliance regulations will accelerate the shift toward Quality as a Service (QaaS) in Life Sciences, moving focus from product reliability to end-to-end operational resilience. Priorities will revolve around risk reduction across the entire customer experience and minimizing production downtime. To keep pace, suppliers will be forced to move beyond products and features to offer robust supply chain solutions and ensure swift support for quality and regulatory compliance issues.
Brandon Rice, Co-Founder and CEO at Weave Bio
In 2026, we’ll see the first collaborative experiments between sponsors and regulators to replace static PDF dossiers with dynamic, AI-queryable knowledge packages. Rather than submitting thousands of pages of fixed documentation, sponsors will package drug candidate information in formats designed for AI interrogation, enabling reviewers to query data interactively and populate pre-configured templates instantaneously.
Crucially, this evolution won’t eliminate the sponsor’s narrative voice. The regulatory process must remain a constructive dialogue. These platforms preserve sponsors’ ability to present their perspective while dramatically accelerating review through instant data access.
The implications: faster review cycles, more efficient use of regulatory resources, and accelerated patient access to new therapies without compromising safety. While full implementation will take years, 2026 marks the beginning, with early adopters pioneering approaches that will become standard practice.
Skip Sorrels, Field CTO and CISO at Claroty
In 2026, the defining challenge for healthcare will be governance: how leaders can establish oversight frameworks that keep pace with rapid AI adoption. As organizations turn to AI to cope with tightening budgets, strained resources, and the constant pressure to deliver more with less, the technology will create both opportunity and risk. Intelligent systems can accelerate tasks such as contract review and vulnerability assessments, helping healthcare teams uncover gaps that once took years to resolve and breaking away from the legacy mindset that change must be slow and resource-heavy.
Yet as AI accelerates defenses, it also enables attackers to innovate faster, particularly against operational technology and medical devices that cannot simply be taken offline. Governance will be critical to ensuring that AI enhances patient safety and resilience instead of introducing new vulnerabilities.
Erika Sylvester, General Counsel + Head of Compliance at Authenticx
In 2026, regulatory evolution will shape patient relationships through increasing requirements for transparency and consent. Organizations may be required to spell out, in far more detail than today’s privacy laws demand, exactly how patient data is being used. That level of clarity has the potential to build trust, but there’s also a real risk of oversaturating patients with information. Some may not care, and others may not be able to fully understand it, which could ultimately create more confusion and negatively impact patient engagement.
Pamela Tenearts, Chief Medical Officer at Medable
Next year will be an inflection point for how AI is governed in clinical research. The FDA and EMA have been moving (thoughtfully but decisively) toward a more aligned, forward-looking set of rules that do more than protect the public; they create room for responsible progress. With the EU AI Act coming into effect in the first half of 2026 and the FDA beginning to deploy generative AI tools to support and accelerate regulatory review, there will be a new regulatory position: guidance that is faster, more data-driven, and anchored in transparency, explainability, and continuous performance monitoring.
In 2026, there will also be a tiered approach to autonomy. Regulators appear to be increasingly prepared to let AI handle routine, low-risk research tasks with minimal friction, while keeping firm human control over decisions that directly shape safety, ethics, and public trust. That is the right hierarchy. If they stay on this course, international coordination and iterative learning between agencies will not just keep up with AI; they will shape it.
The result is substantial: more efficient drug development, lower costs, and more timely, representative access to better therapies. The challenge, which we cannot underestimate, is to ensure that the governance, safeguards, and ethical commitments evolve as quickly as the technology they aim to oversee.
Iffi Wahla, CEO at Edge
States are accelerating the adoption of the NAIC Model AI Bulletin, requiring documentation, bias testing, and third-party oversight, creating new compliance workflows within insurance and healthcare. AI governance will become a bigger boardroom topic than AI automation. As industries move toward accountability and compliance, leaders will prioritize explainability and ethics over speed or scale.
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us, and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for Healthcare Governance, Regulations, and Compliance in 2026? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!
Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s Healthcare Governance, Regulations, and Compliance content and our other 2026 Health IT Predictions.
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