Healthcare finance leaders are navigating an increasingly difficult environment: persistent funding pressures, rising costs, capital needs, workforce constraints, aging systems and growing expectations to find efficiencies without compromising patient care.

These challenges are exactly why opportunities to learn from other finance leaders matter.

Following the 2025 National Healthcare Finance Conference presented by Spark Conferences, attendees shared what they valued about the experience, which sessions resonated most and what they want to see explored next. Their feedback points to several reasons healthcare finance professionals find value in coming together: relevant conversations, practical ideas, diverse perspectives and connections with peers facing many of the same pressures.

Here is what healthcare finance leaders told us.

1. The Conversations Reflect the Challenges Finance Leaders Are Facing Now

One of the clearest themes in attendee feedback was relevance.

When asked about the most important issue in their work, finance leaders identified financial sustainability, deficits, funding pressures, cash flow, capital requirements, automation, technology investment, workforce pressures, and finding ways to do more with limited resources.

These aren’t hypothetical challenges. They are decisions finance teams are working through every day.

That made timely conference discussions particularly valuable to attendees.

“The conference, as always, is well organized. Meaningful topics are current and relevant.”

Another attendee highlighted the way the agenda connected directly to the current environment:

“The topics tied in very nice way and were very relevant to the current financial landscape.”

For prospective attendees, that’s an important distinction. The National Healthcare Finance Conference is an opportunity to step outside the day-to-day demands of the finance function and examine the bigger issues shaping healthcare financial management alongside colleagues experiencing them firsthand.

2. You Hear How Other Healthcare Organizations Are Approaching the Same Problems

Knowing the challenges is one thing. Understanding what other organizations are doing about them is where the conversation becomes especially valuable. Attendees responded positively to sessions that provided practical examples and experiences from healthcare organizations of different sizes.

Sessions focused on the economic outlook, financial sustainability, capital planning, financial data, small hospital strategies, cash management, and digital transformation were among those attendees had identified as particularly valuable.

One attendee specifically praised a session for providing “tangible thoughts and ideas and not just high-level commentary.”

Another described the value of hearing from a broader cross-section of the healthcare system:

“Varying levels/sizes of hospitals presenting, as well as, perspectives from outside Ontario and from the rest of Canada.”

Attendees are asking for even more of this: AI implementation stories, finance transformation, budgeting strategies, automation, benchmarking, capital development, revenue generation, data analytics, and examples that demonstrate measurable outcomes.

That feedback continues to help shape the conference around what healthcare finance professionals want to take back to their organizations.

3. Practical Learning Matters

A recurring message throughout the survey was that finance leaders want ideas they can use.

Attendees asked for more case studies, implementation examples, actionable strategies, and opportunities to understand not only what organizations are changing, but how they are doing it.

One respondent summed up the opportunity as:

“More depth; AI/tools and case studies we can implement.”

Another asked for “more practical sessions with tangible results” and discussions about tangible next steps.

That expectation is important to the direction of the National Healthcare Finance Conference. Finance leaders have no shortage of challenges to discuss. The greater value comes from examining approaches, successes, lessons learned, and strategies that can help move organizations forward.

4. Some of the Most Valuable Conversations Happen Between Sessions

Attendees also repeatedly identified networking as one of the things the conference does well.

“Well organized, good presentations, lots of opportunities to network.”

Others specifically praised the longer networking breaks, roundtable discussions, and opportunities to connect with colleagues.

For healthcare finance professionals, those conversations can be just as valuable as a formal presentation.

They provide an opportunity to ask: Are you dealing with this too? How is your organization approaching it? What have you tried? What worked?

One attendee described the conference as a:

“Great opportunity to create connections and have honest discussions around where we need to go.”

When organizations across the country are dealing with many of the same financial pressures, being able to exchange experiences with peers can provide perspectives that are difficult to gain from inside one organization alone.

5. You Leave with a Broader View of Healthcare Finance

The conference also allows attendees to look beyond their immediate responsibilities.

Feedback highlighted the value of hearing from different hospitals, regions, organization sizes and areas of expertise. Attendees also expressed interest in hearing more from health system partners, policymakers and organizations outside their own areas of healthcare.

That exchange of perspectives is increasingly important as the finance function evolves.

Finance leaders are being asked to support decisions involving operations, clinical priorities, technology, workforce, capital and long-term organizational strategy. Understanding how those pieces connect can help finance leaders become stronger partners in decision-making.

Why Attend the National Healthcare Finance Conference?

The attendee feedback points to a straightforward answer.

Come for relevant conversations about the financial challenges healthcare organizations are facing. Learn how peers are responding. Hear practical examples. Build relationships with other finance professionals. And return to your organization with new perspectives on the decisions ahead.

As one attendee put it:

“The discussions revolving around harnessing data to drive financial sustainability were invaluable for healthcare CFO’s.”

The challenges facing healthcare finance aren’t getting simpler. But there is considerable value in bringing together the people working to solve them.

Join healthcare finance leaders from across Canada at the next National Healthcare Finance Conference and be part of the conversation.

Media? Apply to join us.

Are you a journalist or member of a large media outlet?

To request media accreditation, please contact us directly at info@sparkconferences.com with your name, outlet, and coverage focus. All applications will be reviewed, and confirmation will be sent via email.

Media accreditation includes:

• Complimentary access to attend sessions (in-person or virtual)
• Opportunities to interview speakers and panelists

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