The Alliance for Health Policy Announces 2026 Signature Series Theme on “Health Care Payment: Where We Are, Where We Are Going”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2025

The Alliance for Health Policy Announces 2026 Signature Series Theme on “Health Care Payment: Where We Are, Where We Are Going”

– Following a successful summit on aging, the Alliance announces 2026 focus on U.S. health care financing

– Yearlong series to convene diverse stakeholders for evidence-based conversations on how payment works today and what it could look like in the future

Washington, D.C. — The Alliance for Health Policy today announced the theme for its 2026 Signature Series: “Health Care Payment: Where We Are, Where We Are Going.” The announcement follows last week’s widely attended public summit on aging policy.

The 2026 Series will explore the evolving landscape of health care payment, one of the most consequential topics in health policy today. Payment drives behavior, markets, outcomes, and experiences. Yet, in the United States, health care payment is governed by overlapping, and often conflicting, models, regulations, and legislative frameworks.

“When we think about how payment works today, we know there is great interest among our educational audiences to understand the complexities of how health care is paid for, and this topic will allow us to explore the best ways to do that,” said Claire Sheahan, M.Sc., President and CEO of the Alliance for Health Policy. “At the same time, we are hearing from our community that policies that govern payment today are the product of decades of rewriting, overwriting, updating, and reverse-engineering solutions in response to changes in technology, population needs, and systems requirements. They are looking to the Alliance to lead a conversation about what payment policy could look like in the future.”

The 2026 theme emerged through a months-long listening process with the Alliance’s network of policymakers, board members, program sponsors, and community members. The goal was to identify a topic that is timely, educationally valuable, and not yet widely explored in the Alliance’s programming. The result was clear: there is a pressing need to examine the fundamentals of how health care is financed in the United States, both now and in the future.

In keeping with the Alliance’s Incubate-to-Educate model, the 2026 Signature Series will begin with a listening tour and thought leader workshop featuring a broad range of expertise, lived experience, and ideological perspectives. The listening phase is followed by a live webinar, a public summit, and a congressional briefing. Each program builds on the last, translating expert insights into clear, timely, nonpartisan education for Hill and agency staff.

For more than 30 years, the Alliance has delivered reliable, nonpartisan education to thousands of policymakers and health policy leaders. The Signature Series, its annual flagship initiative, offers a trusted forum for surfacing complex health challenges and delivering foundational knowledge through expert-led programming. Each year, the Series brings clarity to critical policy topics through a yearlong sequence of convenings and insights gatherings, all grounded in evidence and diverse perspectives.

The Alliance is now seeking sponsors for the 2026 Signature Series. Sponsorship offers a unique opportunity to support trusted, balanced education on a topic that is top of mind for the health policy community. Sponsors also gain access to collaborative thought leadership opportunities, early insights, and visibility across Alliance programming. Sign up to get connected here.

About the Alliance for Health Policy

The Alliance for Health Policy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping policymakers and the public better understand health policy, the root of the nation’s health care issues, and the trade-offs posed by various proposals for change. We believe a better health care system begins with a balanced exchange of evidence, experience, and multiple perspectives.

For press inquiries, please contact:

Carolyn Sobczyk
Communications Consultant
csobczyk@allhealthpolicy.org

For sponsorship inquiries, please contact:

Kelly Appenzeller
Director of Production and Development
kappenzeller@allhealthpolicy.org