Event: HLTH 2026 (HLTH USA)
Dates: Sunday, November 15 to Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Venue: The Venetian Expo
City: Las Vegas, Nevada
Host: HLTH
HLTH is the biggest annual meeting of the people who pay for, run and sell technology into American healthcare. Hospital systems, insurers, employers, pharma companies, startups and the investors behind them all show up in one building. Last year’s edition drew more than 12,250 attendees, about 4,400 of them C-suite executives, and the 2026 exhibit floor lists more than 950 exhibitors and sponsors on Level 2 of the Venetian Expo.
What’s on the program
The content runs across AI and emerging technology, care delivery, pharma and life sciences, women’s health, employer and workforce health, and a track for investors, government and policy. AI is the thread through most of it. Main stage speakers include Ashley Alexander of OpenAI and Dr. Syed Mohiuddin of Anthropic, alongside Arianna Huffington of Thrive Global, Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan of AARP, Dr. Toyin Ajayi of Cityblock Health and Will Ahmed of WHOOP.
The quieter story on the floor is paperwork. eFax, at booth 4021, is previewing tools for referrals, clinical intake and prior authorization: document processing that pulls structured data out of incoming faxes and PDFs and routes it into trackable work queues, without replacing the EHR. The company cites the numbers that make this a market. Somewhere between 30% and 50% of outpatient specialty referrals are never completed, 95% of physicians report care delays tied to prior authorization, staff spend about 13 hours a week on those queues, and roughly 80% of healthcare data still sits in unstructured documents. Expect a lot of AI agent pitches aimed at exactly that backlog.
Passes and prices
Rates posted in early October were $1,500 for clinicians, startups, and government and nonprofit attendees, against a full rate of $3,395. Provider, payer and employer executives and investors were at $2,895, also against $3,395. Solution providers and vendors paid $3,595, rising to $3,995. Market Connect and media passes can be free with an accepted application. Prices rise as the event gets closer, so check the HLTH registration page for the current figure.
Who should go
HLTH is a dealmaking event more than a technical conference. Vendors come to meet health system and payer buyers, and startups come to meet investors. If the goal is clinical research or engineering detail, HIMSS and the specialty society meetings are better fits. If the goal is to see where health system budgets for AI are heading in 2027, this is the week to be in Las Vegas.