Healthcare Leadership & Executive Conference
October 29th, 2026
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa
Agenda to follow.
Hosted By:
Contact Chris Ortale for more details.
Key Topics Include:
- The Hospital of the Future: Emerging Models/Advances
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Hospital Performance Improvement
- Understanding the Impacts of BBB and Key Regulatory Challenges for Hospitals
- Optimizing Medical Group Performance and Physician/Hospital Alignment
- Workforce Redesign: Addressing Shortages and New Approaches
- Balancing Effective Care Delivery Through Emerging Partnerships, Innovative Models of Healthcare Delivery, and Physician Alignment
- Latest Trends and Case Studies for Hospitals
- Looking Forward: Hospital of the Future
- Disrupt or be Disrupted: Taking a Closer Look at Provider Alignment Models
- Looking at Partnerships/Transactions Through a Different Lens: New and Emerging Models
- The State of Healthcare Mergers & Acquisitions
- How to Succeed in Value-Based Arrangements with Payers
- Ambulatory Market Trends, Insights, and Movements
- Population Health: Controlling Your Future with Integrated Care Delivery Practices
- How to Deal with COVID Burnout and Keep Providers Engaged
- Workforce Shortages and Solutions for Retention/Growth
- Optimizing Your Real Estate Portfolio
- The Importance of Post-Acute Care Collaboration
- Reducing Clinical Variation & Related Impacts on Cost & Quality
Speakers
Patrick Callaghan
Counsel
Nixon Peabody
Shelby Decosta
SVP, Chief Development Officer
Kaiser Permanente
Scott Evans, PharmD
CSO and Market CEO
Sharp HealthCare
Bill Gil
CEO
Gil Advisors
Jill Gordon
Partner
Nixon Peabody
Donna Hefner
President and CEO
Sierra View Medical Center
David Hermann
CEO
hermanngroup
David Kim, MD
President
MemorialCare
Kristine Lee, MD
Associate Executive Director
The Permanente Group
David Mast
Chief Executive
Providence Clinical Network Los Angeles
Stuart Mathews
Director of Industry Alliances
UCI Beall Applied Innovation
Annette Morgan
COO
City of Hope Orange County
Steve Popkin
Former Hospital CEO &
Current Sr. Advisor
Ravi Thadhani, MD
Emeritus EVP for Health Affairs
Emory University
Eric Themm
CEO
Zephyr Healthcare Advisors
Alen Voskanian, MD
COO
Cedars-Sinai Medical Network
Brian Vossler
VP of Strategic Business Development
Ventegra
Gabriel Waterman, MD
VP of Primary Care
SCAN
Andrew Zwers
President
PIH Health Physicians
Brian Vossler
VP of Strategic Business Development
Ventegra
Gabriel Waterman, MD
VP of Primary Care
SCAN
SPEAKERS AND TOPICS
Hospital Performance Improvement Roundtable
Tuesday, September 12th
Handel Conference Room
Hospital Performance Improvement: Keys to Optimizing Hospital Revenue and Cost Reduction
Hospitals are facing unprecedented financial challenges driven by many factors, including:
- Post-COVID impacts on patient behavior, volume, and workforce
- Payer mix erosion and reimbursement challenges
- Reduction of government subsidies
- Rising costs
- General difficulties for organizations in navigating financial headwinds (i.e., change management)
This session will discuss approaches and case studies related to implementing a financial turnaround in a proactive manner where the hospital organization can control the process and make changes before ending up in an emergent situation (e.g., bankruptcy, “fire sale,” or closure).
Specific themes in this interactive session will include:
- Considerations in pursuing a formal financial turnaround.
- Lessons learned from actual case studies – both successful and unsuccessful (dos and don’ts)
- How to re-educate your management team to run the organization more effectively.
- Areas of opportunity beyond the usual suspects (e.g., labor, supplies, and cutting programs), including automated revenue cycle solutions, non-labor costs such as equipment maintenance and support services, pharmacy/PBM, and benefits.
- Tackling cost reduction opportunities on the employed medical group side.
Panel includes a former hospital CEO, CFO, and multiple experienced advisors who have overseen hospital turnarounds.
Moderator
Eric Themm
President
Zephyr Healthcare Advisors
Panel
Stephanie Dorwart
Chief Executive Officer
Altius Healthcare Consulting Group
Wade Eckman
Senior Vice President, B2B Business
Repay
Kevin Murphy
CFO Extender
KGM Health Ventures
Chad Wable
President
Aspiresults
Private Speaker & Sponsor Dinner
Thursday, September 14th
General Sessions in Beethoven 2 Conference Room
Networking Breakfast
Trends and Innovations in Cancer: Best-Practices and Models of Care from Two Industry Leading Organizations
Hear from two leading organizations in Cancer care that are constantly innovating to boost their performance and stay ahead in the competitive landscape. In addition to their regular operational improvements, they are exploring exciting avenues to capitalize on the value generated by pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device companies. This pursuit involves tackling intricate challenges, but it’s a thrilling endeavor that cancer centers are increasingly spearheading, shaping the future of cancer solutions.
Annette Morgan
Chief Administrative Officer
City of Hope Orange County
Chris McKee
SVP, Strategy & Business Development
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Solving the Behavioral Health Crisis: Emerging Partnerships and Delivery Models
The nationwide behavioral health crisis has put a burden on emergency departments, health workers, and systems as one in seven cases seen in US hospital emergency departments (EDs) are becoming stuck ‘boarding’ for long hours, even days, in EDs, untreated, waiting for an elusive inpatient psychiatric bed. Hear from two behavioral health experts who have addressed these challenges and discuss helpful and impactful solutions for hospitals and health systems. One model discussed will be the EmPath unit (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing unit which has stellar peer-reviewed outcomes and can be implemented in any size hospital, whether urban or rural.
Larry Blitz
Chairman
Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Board
Scott Zeller, M.D.
Vice President for Acute Psychiatry
Vituity
Health System Evolution - Direct to Employer Programs
As most health systems struggle financially, post COVID, many are looking for new revenue sources and ways to control their commercial patient flow. Direct to Employer programs provide many competitive advantages and are a natural next step in health system delivery and growth. In this session we will explore all the facets of these exciting new programs.
Larry Thompson
Chief Executive Officer
Benefit Systems Inc.
Adjourn
SPONSORS
SPONSORS
GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
BRONZE SPONSORS
