Agenda

With war in the Middle East, possibly winding down, the Straight of Hormuz currently closed to trade, energy costs continuing to rise higher, new negotiations on the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement (CUSMA) set to begin this year, and the continuing headwinds of Tariffs and global supply chain disruption, there is plenty of risk to manage.

Gain a big picture of how these economic headwinds are expected to progress, and how you can assess the risks and prepare for coming years.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Gain the latest insight into the macro trends that affect provincial and federal budgets to deliver on their funding models?

• What trends are we seeing on interest rates and economic outlook in the near term, and how will they impact capital financing projects over the next several years?

• How should hospital finance leaders plan under current budgetary pressures

• What good news are we seeing on the horizon, and how will that impact future plans

In the face of constrained resources and growing demand, we must balance both budgetary efficiency and performance to drive value through our healthcare system. Globally, Performance Standards have been proven to be a critical tool to drive value in healthcare, setting the conditions, capabilities and care models that will achieve improvements in both performance and efficiency.

This session explores how leading organizations are moving beyond benchmarking and a singular focus on financial efficiency to establish clearer expectations, expose structural constraints, and uncover opportunities. The result is a more practical and honest view of what it takes for our systems to perform at their best.

A senior-level perspective from Ontario’s Auditor General, Shelley Spence, on how finance leaders can strengthen accountability, value, and resilience in health care. As hospitals face workforce shortages, rising demand, and constrained resources, this session will examine the role of timely, reliable data in identifying risk, monitoring performance, and supporting better decision-making. It will also explore how AI, digital tools, and new models of care require strong governance, transparency, internal controls, and system-wide accountability.

Traditional patient billing and collections models often rely on manual follow-up, delayed payment cycles, and third-party collection agencies, resulting in higher bad debt, increased write-offs, and significant revenue leakage.

By the time accounts are referred to collections, organisation frequently recover only a fraction of the outstanding balance, while agency fees further reduce net revenue.

This session explores how a Revenue Protection Framework can help healthcare organizations engage patients earlier in the payment journey, accelerating payments and preventing revenue leakage before it occurs.

Last few years most Canadian Hospitals have turned to financial institutions to manage their cash flow. More than 60 per cent of Ontario hospitals were in the red at the end of the 2025 fiscal year, and many, including some of the largest in the country, have turned to banks to cover their operating and capital costs.

This session will explore the Hospital CFO’s perspective on current struggles and how best to manage Cash Flow needs.

Panelists will share the tools and routines they use to forecast cash, the actions that stabilize cash flow now, and how to work effectively with the Ministry when risk appears. The discussion will also bridge the technical and the human: how to bring the CEO and board into governance decisions, and how to communicate clearly with leaders and staff without creating unnecessary alarm.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Forecast with discipline by implementing up to date forecasts and scenario triggers

• Navigate Ministry and governance confidently and know what to escalate, when, and how

• Communicate to protect operations and translate cash realities into clear operational choices

• Role of the Financial institutions and credit ratings.

Canadian hospitals are being asked to deliver measurable efficiencies while budgets tighten and AI offerings evolve quickly. The Hospital for Sick Children has recently gone live on April 1st with an AI Accounts Payable project, and already they are seeing changes in how the organization has worked.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What are some of the early indications on metrics and tangible results
• How are the early metrics showing a positive business case for implementation
• How does governance requirements play out
• What are the lessons learned and how can they be applied to other organizations

Hospital capital projects are facing a tougher market—higher risk, more complexity, and fewer bidders—driving major cost increases and putting pressure on operating capital. This panel explores why large redevelopments are struggling more than smaller builds, and how tactics like phased delivery and scope discipline (e.g., limiting total footprint) can help keep projects financeable.

Panelists will compare lessons from projects showing stronger performance alongside larger sites under strain and dig into the harder question: how to make the operations case compelling enough to justify the build

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Control cost escalation and reduce bidder risk and complexity through phasing, scope caps, smart packaging, and procurement strategy
• Protect liquidity during builds and set governance triggers that prevent capital decisions from consuming operating cash when credit lines are limited
• Make operations the proof to link new space to measurable operational outcomes (throughput, staffing models, service shifts) that the Ministry will fund

Healthcare organizations have made major strides using analytics, automation, and AI to improve clinical decision-making. Now, finance teams have an opportunity to apply those same tools to reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and create more capacity for strategic thinking.

This session explores how back-office automation can help healthcare finance teams modernize core processes, lower administrative burden, and unlock cost savings—without losing control, transparency, or accountability. Participants will hear practical lessons from organizations that have moved beyond the pilot stage and are using automation to support faster decisions, better workflows, and more resilient finance operations.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Identify where automation delivers the greatest return: understand which finance processes create the biggest opportunities for savings, speed, and staff capacity.

• Build for flexibility and scale: learn how to design automation platforms that adapt as organizational needs, reporting requirements, and technology evolve.

• Learn from peer experience: explore the challenges, governance questions, and change-management lessons healthcare organizations have faced when deploying back-office automation.

Small and mid-sized hospitals have unique challenges due to the less financial buffer, higher vulnerability to staffing shortages, limited ability to shift services the and the current funding structure.

This panel focuses on the financial reality facing Ontario’s small and mid-size hospitals—structural deficits, labour pressures, digital transformation, capital constraints, and the growing need for regional collaboration. The goal is not just to describe the pressures, but to explore what CFOs can do differently, together, in this environment.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Ontario’s small and mid-size hospitals are some of the most efficient in Canada, but efficiency alone can’t solve structural gaps. What will make the difference is strategic collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and a unified voice to government.

• Build access through partnerships and the use of shared services, regional referral pathways, and collaborative staffing models to expand services without carrying full fixed costs.

• Finance leaders must engage beyond the back office in to community and increase their understanding of the health care system.

• Lead with clear governance and communication with foundations, the Ministry and set clear threat-level thresholds and decision triggers