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Hospital C-suite execs 'turn on noise-canceling headphones' for second part of 2026
Health system executives face an uncertain financial reality heading into the second half of 2026. Medicaid changes, disruption to the 340B drug discount program and flat federal research funding are reshaping the operating environment for hospitals of every size. Health system C-suites turn on ‘noise canceling headphones’ for the 2nd half of 2026
Executives need discipline as they think about the future.
“Strategic planning and budgetary rigor are certainly necessary ingredients for a successful year,” said Mr, G. Moseley, MD, president of USF Tampa General Physicians and executive vice president of Tampa General Hospital. “But resiliency and strategic execution also require that leaders take what they have anticipated and adapt to meet the reality of their present circumstances in the last half of the year.”
Plans are changing and it’s easy for leaders to get distracted with the uncertainty of the broader healthcare system. Policies are changing rapidly and technology is evolving at a faster clip than before. Much of the change is beyond the leader’s control and impacts the hospital’s financial health.
“In the second half of the fiscal year, it is the perfect time to refocus and switch our leadership version of ‘noise canceling headphones.’ How do we do that? We can build trust by establishing a steady cadence of intentional communication about where we are, where we are headed, and the priorities we should focus on right now,” he said. “We can accept that obstacles are an inevitable consequence of changing terrain and organize our teams to navigate them effectively.”
At Harbor UCLA Medical Center, part of Los Angeles County Health Services, CEO Andrea Turner, PhD, JD, has translated that instinct into a structural framework. Financial sustainability is her stated priority, narrowed into five connected efforts: cost containment, staff wellness, pairing back programs outside the core mission, patient satisfaction and clinical quality.
“Cost containment is exceptionally relevant because of the amount of waste that occurs in healthcare,” Dr. Turner said. “Working efficiently and effectively with a lean perspective helps to track gaps and waste that can be mitigated.”
She draws a direct line from focus to financial outcome on the workforce side as well.
“When staff are extremely stressed, they are likely to go out on some type of medical/psychological leave, of which productivity suffers,” Dr. Turner said. Removing the extra ‘noise’ and simplifying stressful situations helps the team manage challenges and stay focused on patient care.
At Thunder Bay Community Health Service in Alpena, Mich., the noise has a specific disruption to the 340B drug discount program, which CFO Douglas Kreis said has fundamentally reshaped the pharmacy landscape for covered entities like his. His response is to narrow in rather than spread out.
“Declining revenues and rapidly escalating costs require us to challenge legacy assumptions, rigorously evaluate every service line, and align resources with strategies that best advance our mission and maximize impact for the communities we serve,” Mr. Kreis said.
On the revenue side, that same narrowing shows up as maximizing Medicaid enrollment before anticipated changes take hold.
“Proactive planning to drive maximum enrollment is essential, not only to stabilize our financial foundation, but to ensure continued access to care for our most vulnerable patients in an increasingly constrained healthcare environment,” Mr. Kreis said.
Sometimes the noise is internally generated. Hammond-Henry Hospital in Geneseo, Ill., spent its last fiscal year adding orthopedics and rheumatology service lines, hiring two new family practice physicians and transitioning to a new EMR, payroll vendor and general ledger platform all at once. CEO Wyatt Brieser’s priority for the second half of the year is protecting the quiet long enough for those changes to take hold.
“We have been very clear with our staff that this is a time to strengthen foundations rather than introduce additional disruption,” Mr. Brieser said. “Our administrative team is intentionally working to absorb as much of the implementation burden as possible so frontline staff can regain their footing and operate at a sustainable pace.”
It is not a full retreat from strategy — Hammond-Henry is preparing to pursue Rural Health Transformation Program funding and will engage its board in strategic planning this fall — but for now, stability comes first.
At Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, the noise is a funding picture that isn’t going to improve. President and CEO Boris Pasche, MD, PhD, said flat federal research support means it can no longer be counted on to drive growth.
“Government research support remains flat and cannot be counted on as a growth engine,” Dr. Pasche said.
Rather than waiting on a funding environment he can’t change, Dr. Pasche is focused on growing patient volume, pursuing selective industry-sponsored research, and using AI to cut costs in insurance verification and billing collections.
Not every leader’s version of focus points inward. Shane Strum, president and CEO of Broward Health in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is tuning out the same industry noise as everyone above — he just has the balance sheet to focus on growth instead of retrenchment.
Broward Health received credit rating upgrades from S&P, Moody’s and Fitch in the first half of 2026, and Mr. Strum is directing that strength toward a specific, bounded set of priorities rather than chasing every opportunity available to a system in his position.
The system plans to open additional freestanding emergency rooms, medical office buildings, clinics and physician practices in the second half of the year, alongside welcoming its largest graduate medical education class to date. A continued partnership with Memorial Healthcare System, called Better Together, anchors much of that growth, with the two systems working jointly on care coordination for the nearly 2 million residents they collectively serve.
“Ultimately, we remain focused on identifying new opportunities to collaborate, improve health outcomes, and ensure every resident has access to the care they need, when, and where they need it,” Mr. Strum said.
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face.