October 2026
The first gathering convened in Walnut Creek
Employers, providers, payers, advisors and innovators spent a day working on one question: what would health look like if it followed the person instead of the plan?
Read the gatheringNewsroom
The news that shapes the room.
What the people working on care quality, access and cost need to know this month, alongside what is happening inside Health Reimagined.
From Health Reimagined
Latest from the initiative.
October 2026
The insights library is open
Perspectives, research notes and recaps from the room are published as an ongoing series, attributed and reviewed before they go out.
Browse insightsNovember 2026
Planning for 2027 is underway
The next convening is being shaped now. Topics, formats and participating organizations are set with the people who intend to do the work.
Join the interest listIndustry watch
What moved this quarter.
Selected reading on cost, transparency, pharmacy and payment, with a note on why each one matters in the room. Every link opens the original source.
November 4, 2026
HHS / CMS
CMS finalizes the CY 2027 Physician Fee Schedule
The final rule sets Medicare physician payment for 2027. CMS frames it as a shift from sick care toward keeping people well, with provisions aimed at curbing waste in the system.
Why it mattersPayment reform is the clearest signal of what the delivery system will be asked to do next. Read the rule itself before quoting the summary.
October 22, 2026
KFF
Workers now pay $7,471 a year toward family coverage
KFF's 28th Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average annual family premium at $28,303, up 5%. Workers contribute $7,471 on average, up 9% — and $621 — from 2025. The average single-coverage deductible is $1,955.
Why it mattersPremiums rose faster than wages (3.7%) and inflation (2.7%). Affordability is now a retention problem, not only a benefits line item.
October 5, 2026
HHS / CMS
Transparency in Coverage rules tightened, with a drug price file to follow
Final rules reduce duplicative pricing data, add out-of-network prices, require personalized cost-sharing information by phone and move plan reporting from monthly to quarterly. A prescription drug file schema is expected around May 2027, with publishing to begin that December.
Why it mattersCleaner price data is the raw material for the plan designs employers keep asking for. Data quality, not data volume, was the bottleneck.
June 11, 2026
PwC
Health plans project a 9% commercial cost trend for 2027
PwC's Behind the Numbers 2027 projects the highest commercial medical cost trend in 17 years. The drivers named are AI-enabled provider revenue capture, provider consolidation, pharmacy spending, behavioral health utilization and No Surprises Act arbitration.
Why it mattersTraditional deflators are already baked into plan baselines. The remaining levers are the ones employers control: benefit design, network and formulary.
December 2, 2025
Business Group on Health
Trends to watch: cost pressure, disruption and a harder look at vendors
Business Group on Health reports employers anticipating a median 9% health care trend, falling to 7.6% with plan design changes. Its trends list includes disruption, a sharper focus on fundamentals, a rewritten pharmacy playbook, AI adoption and policy shifts.
Why it mattersThe report's central argument matches what the room keeps saying: protecting the status quo is now the riskier choice.
Summaries are written by the Health Reimagined team and attributed to the publishing source. Figures belong to the source named and reflect the date shown.
The dispatch, once a month.
A short brief on what changed in cost, coverage and care, plus what the member organizations are working on.