HLTH USA is a premier health care innovation event that brings together more than 12,250 digital health founders, payers, providers, pharma/medtech leaders, investors and policymakers. Over four days, keynotes, interactive panels, and curated networking programs explore core themes including artificial intelligence, health investment, care transformation and regulatory policy.

Event website

Panel: Is AI Actually Adding Value or Just Moving the Cost Around?

As AI promises to streamline health care administration, early evidence suggests there may be a tension on ROI. Some AI-enabled tools may be increasing costs while others lower, leading to questions around value of care versus volume. Are all health care models and systems experiencing this tension, and in the same way? Moving from pilot to real impact takes more than the technology itself, it takes aligning tools with human workflows, building responsible foundations, earning trust from clinicians and patients, and scaling across organizational silos, all while staying anchored to outcomes that actually matter to patients and health systems. What does that path look like in practice, and who’s actually walking it? Panel will explore the benefits and challenges of AI-enabled health care and discuss if we are building a more efficient system or just faster red tape.

Tuesday, November 17, 2026
2:30 p.m. – 3:10 p.m. PST
Ferrari Stage

Permanente speaker

• Maria Ansari, MD, FACC, Co-CEO, The Permanente Federation

Other speakers

• Ratnakar Lavu, Executive Vice President and Chief DIO, Elevance Health
• Dr. Shaun Miller, Chief Health Informatics Officer, Cedar-Sinai
• Dr. Prathima Srinivas, MD, MHA, CMIO, Applied AI, AWS
• Jay Rughani, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz (Moderator)