Nearly 500 healthcare leaders convened last week for the Nashville Health Care Council’s signature event, Wall Street’s View on Prospects for the Healthcare Industry, to examine the forces reshaping healthcare’s trajectory. The 28th annual gathering, held downtown at the Omni Hotel, convened top industry leaders and finance experts to discuss key market forces shaping healthcare and what they signal for the year ahead.

Welcoming the sold-out crowd, Nashville Health Care Council CEO Apryl Childs-Potter first expressed gratitude for the opportunity togather, and for the support of the community, following the recent severe weather in Nashville. She then noted the significance of the gathering as thefirst since the Council became an independent organization, highlighting plansto expand member value through new cohort-based programming and deeper opportunities for connection. New series including Council Executive Forums and Healthcare Foundations, are designed to complement large-format meetings with smaller-group engagement. Childs-Potter then invited moderator Bobby Frist, Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of HealthStream, to begin the afternoon’s panel, drawing on his experience leading a public healthcare technology companythrough multiple market cycles.

Featured analysts included Ryan Daniels, Group Head of Healthcare Equity Research at William Blair and Brian Tanquilut, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies.

In his opening comments, Frist echoed Childs-Potter in acknowledging the disastrous effects of the recent ice storm and showing appreciation for the many Nashville healthcare professionals who have served far beyond their day jobs to support their families, friends, neighbors, and broader community.

Frist and the panelists then began the panel by discussinghealthcare market trends and industry performance over the past year. The dialogue then shifted to regulatory and policy uncertainty as a dominant force, the AI shockwave across healthcare and SaaS markets, how long-term healthcare fundamentals remain intact, and how leaders are measuring the real ROI of generative AI in healthcare.

Uncertainty as a dominant market force

As the moderator, Frist framed the conversation against a period of uncertainty, one heightened by but not exclusively due to rapidly advancing AI, and invited panelists to share their perspective on this market dynamic. Expressing a similar sentiment, Daniels said, “Investors do not like uncertainty, and this is probably the most uncertain healthcare market I've seen in the last few decades.”

Areas of uncertainty highlighted early in the discussion included the massive shifts in the Medicare Advantage market due to low ratesand high utilization, negative margins in Managed Medicaid, and the impact oftariffs on drug companies.

On the topic of policy, Daniels pointed to the fate of ACA exchange subsidies as a near-term variable with broad downstream effects, warning that the impact could range widely, and the longer-term risk is notlimited to a single year. He described how higher premiums and shifts to higher deductible plans can drive more consumer price sensitivity, higher bad debt, and second-order effects that ultimately influence provider spending andpurchasing decisions across the healthcare services and technology stack.

Tanquilut pointed out that, as the likelihood of legislative action slows, the market is watching what can change through administrativeaction. “Where are the changes that happen at CMS?” he posed, emphasizing that near-term attention is on how regulators use existing levers and that uncertainty can shape healthcare stocks.

Looking ahead, Daniels noted the uncertainty “doesn’t look like it’s going to abate anytime soon.”

AI shockwave across healthcare and SaaS markets

 Panelists described AI as both a catalyst for innovation anda source of existential risk, particularly for software and services companiesthat rely on recurring revenue and differentiated workflows. Daniels offered one way to separate signal from noise is to look for companies positioned to benefit because they already have “the systems of record, the data to train AI models on, existing customer relationships, and distribution channels [which] create a competitive advantage” enabling them to improve offerings and generatea higher ROI for customers.

For Nashville’s nationally leading provider community, Frist offered two points of optimism about the future of AI. First, providers may think of themselves as “originators of data that is ultimately valuable for thetraining of AI,” not just passive technology users. Second, he reminded theaudience, “healthcare is local,” and hands-on care delivery will continue to have value.

Tanquilut emphasized that adoption is likely to be uneven across clinical and administrative domains, and that reimbursement and economics will determine pace. In diagnostics, he cited evidence that AI can detect disease earlier, but he also stressed that “just because the AI exists doesn’t mean we’ll be able to use it right away.” When discussing the administrative side of AI use, he pointed to revenue cycle and back-office workflows as the most immediate proving ground. The pressing question: how much capital can providers invest while balancing cash flow, growth, and efficiency?

With a note of perspective from past market cycles, Frist added, “I lived through the dot‑com boom. Our company was a product of that cycle. Capital flew freely into everything, and a few worked and changed the world. We have that same sentiment now.”

Measuring the real ROI of AI in healthcare

Discussion during the Q&A dug further into the application of AI in healthcare from a practical standpoint. One audience member asked: How can companies reconcile improved outcomes with Gen AI and a lack of gains reflected for CFOs in terms of profit and loss?

Daniels suggested three primary lanes for tracking ROI: internal productivity to reduce labor needs, product enhancement to improve outcomes and support pricing power, and entirely new AI-enabled products. He pointed to prior authorization and denial management as an example of where cycle-time compression can translate into measurable operational value, “but themath has to be there,” shared Daniels.

Tanquilut drew a distinction between the broader tech market’s uncertainty about monetization and healthcare’s ability to tie AI to specific workflows. “In healthcare, the ROI is noticeable,” he said, pointing to how AI features embedded in core platforms can produce observable operational changes, especially when tied to revenue cycle and documentation workflows.

Daniels also noted that ambient documentation and coding intensity are already creating real financial dynamics, such as payer responses, which underscores why measurement, governance and alignment matter as AI adoption scales.

Long‑term healthcare fundamentals 

Both analysts reinforced a consistent long view. Demand dynamics are still on healthcare’s side.

Tanquilut pointed to demographics as a durable tailwind, noting that the oldest baby boomer turns 80 this year and arguing that the“wave for volumes and utilization is just about to start.” He added that for scaled operators with strong local market positions and disciplined leadership, the fundamentals can outweigh headline risk over time.

Daniels echoed that long-term conviction while describing how “aging in place” is reshaping the opportunity set, from home-based supports and monitoring to new models enabled by technology. He noted that seniors are agrowing, economically significant cohort that increasingly expects services that keep them safe and supported at home.

Both panelists also returned to consumerism as an enduringforce, with more pressure to deliver value, transparency, and better decision support as patients are forced to cover higher out-of-pocket expenses.

Closing note

The conversation underscored a shared conclusion: regulatory and policy uncertainty is likely to remain a defining market feature, AI is rapidly resetting expectations for healthcare and SaaS businesses, and yet the industry’s long-term demand drivers remain intact. For Nashville, the healthcare city, the event reinforced both the city’s convening power and the value of candid, cross-sector dialogue as leaders navigate what comes next.

Thank you to our presenting sponsor: Bass, Berry & Sims and to our supporting sponsors: Ardent Health, Buffkin / Baker, Gresham Smith, LBMC, Philips and Wellpoint.

 

About the Nashville Health Care Council
The Nashville Health Care Council strengthens and elevates Nashville as The Healthcare City. With a $68 billion economic impact and 333,000 jobs locally, Nashville’s healthcare ecosystem is a world-class healthcare hub. Founded in 1995, the Council serves as the common ground for the city’s vibrant healthcare cluster. The Council offers engagement opportunities where the industry’s most influential executives come together to exchange ideas, share solutions, build businesses and grow leaders.