Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 - Day 1 Main ConferenceTuesday, 17 March 2026 - EST/EDT (Eastern Daylight, GMT-4)

Join Jimmy Choi, Parkinson’s advocate, American Ninja Warrior and global inspiration, as he shares his extraordinary journey of resilience and advocacy. Diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s at 27, Jimmy has defied expectations, completing marathons, breaking records and inspiring millions worldwide. In this keynote, explore the critical themes of patient affordability and access, offering a unique perspective on the challenges faced by patients navigating rare diseases and chronic conditions. Through his personal story, Jimmy highlights the importance of empowering patients, fostering community support and driving innovation in patient support programs.

• Embrace possibility in the face of life-altering diagnoses

• Champion access, affordability and systemic change

• Build solutions through partnerships in healthcare

• Redefine what’s possible for patients and caregivers

What are patients with chronic conditions experiencing when it comes to affordability and access? This session shares new national-level research capturing the perspectives of thousands of individuals with chronic illnesses. Explore the latest insights into how financial pressures and healthcare policy reforms are shaping the future of patient access and affordability.

The chaos of the healthcare landscape is driving the need to prepare for a future marked by greater access challenges, exacerbated affordability concerns, and an overwhelming availability of technological solutions.  In this session, we will tackle the impact of the trends below on your patient populations and the delivery of patient support.

• Gauging the impact of landmark policy changes (One Big Beautiful Bill, ACA enhanced subsidies, etc.) on patient access to affordable healthcare and medications

• Assessing how the national AI framework will shape utilization of digital and AI solutions  

• Deciphering how payer policies and policy decisions will introduce new pain points within the patient experience

• Building a strategic framework to best future-proof your patient support program

Whether we’re ready or not, the challenging landscape continues to radically shift.  Become better prepared to support your patients in 2026 and beyond.

In this exclusive roundtable, industry leaders will dive deep into how patient access needs are being assessed and the critical role affordability plays in shaping healthcare decisions. With a focus on real-world strategies and emerging trends, explore how data-driven insights are informing policy, operational changes, and innovative approaches to patient support.

• Understand how federal policy changes—both legislative and regulatory—will continue to shape the healthcare landscape, focusing on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Most Favored Nation, PBM reform, and more

• Gain insight into how these policy changes will affect patient access and your patient support programs

• Review a roadmap for how your patient support program should plan for these major changes and incorporate these trends in your strategic planning

Drug manufacturers and their Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) are under unprecedented pressure from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), aggressive PBM tactics (accumulators, maximizers, alternative funding), and gross-to-net challenges. Conversely, new AI tools offer hope for greater PAP efficiency and patient impact. This session will explore these dynamics and outline actionable strategies to negotiate them.

This isn’t just another session about the power of AI to transform patient access. It’s a rethink of how access programs are designed and why even the best teams are being held back by a “butts-in-seats” operating model that forces people to spend their days reading data instead of helping patients. In this session, explore why patient experience and speed to therapy have remained stubbornly constrained, despite life sciences organizations’ best efforts. Learn how leading programs are separating efficiency work from human work, while enabling their teams to focus on guiding patients, explaining next steps and delivering the empathy and clarity that patients need most.

The 2025 Budget Reconciliation Law represents one of the most significant shifts in healthcare coverage in recent years, with projections indicating an increase of 10 million uninsured Americans by 2034. This critical session examines the state-by-state impact of these legislative changes and provides practical guidance for patient advocates, healthcare providers and assistance programs.

• Gain a detailed breakdown of how the uninsured rate will vary across states, with 20 states projected to see increases of 3 percentage points or more

• Identify which patient populations face the highest risk of coverage loss and how these demographics vary by region

• Understand the transformation of new eligibility requirements, cost-sharing provisions and administrative changes affecting Medicaid enrollees

• Explore strategies for hospitals and clinics facing increased uncompensated care, particularly in rural and underserved communities

• Implement practical frameworks for developing and scaling assistance programs to bridge emerging coverage gaps

• Examine quantitative evidence of patient impact from alternative funding programs, including findings from recent multisite studies measuring patient outcomes, access delays, financial burden metrics and care quality indicators that demonstrate measurable effects on patient populations

• Explore how practices in healthcare administration are affecting alternative funding programs, including how recent legislative actions (ACA subsidy reductions, limited enrollment periods, reduced Medicaid expansion funding) are creating new access barriers and compliance challenges

In a constantly evolving landscape, hear about recent policy changes impacting corporate enforcement and compliance, the most recent and impactful cases impacting bio/pharmaceutical manufacturers on areas of focus related to patient assistance and free drug programs and where they are heading next.