SALT LAKE CITY & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 8, 2026--
Cotiviti, The Healthcare Infrastructure Company™, and MedCity News, the leading online news source for the business of innovation in healthcare, today announced the results of their 2026 Healthcare AI Readiness Index (the Index ), which found that healthcare organizations are adopting AI faster than they’re building the governance and cybersecurity frameworks needed to use it safely.
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Conducted in summer 2026, the Index tapped into the perspectives of payer and provider organizations to assess AI adoption, governance and cybersecurity preparedness and better understand how healthcare leaders are balancing AI's potential with the operational, regulatory and security challenges accompanying its deployment.
The Index found that more than 70% of respondents have begun using AI tools, with nearly 40% of health insurers describing AI as a core aspect of their business. Providers are earlier in the process, with more than 70% still in the early stages of adoption.
At the same time, the findings reveal a significant readiness gap. Just 42% of payers and 32% of providers say they are "very prepared" to respond to AI-assisted cyberattacks. Sixty percent of payers and 64% of providers report employees are using unauthorized or non-integrated "shadow AI" tools, while fewer than 40% have detailed policies governing employee use of AI.
“AI is quickly becoming part of the infrastructure of healthcare, but the security and governance around it have to advance just as quickly,” said Ric Sinclair, CEO of Cotiviti. “And that responsibility increasingly extends beyond an organization's own four walls. As health plans and healthcare organizations rely on AI across more critical workflows, they need confidence that the technology and partners throughout their ecosystems meet the same high standards for security, governance and responsible use. Trust will be foundational to realizing AI's full potential in healthcare.”
“From a security standpoint, we treat every AI tool and workflow with the same rigor we apply to any other critical system,” said Sean Warren, Chief Information Officer of Cotiviti. “That means vetting AI vendors and models, monitoring for emerging threats and establishing clear policies for how AI can be used across the organization. As adoption accelerates, that discipline is what allows organizations to adopt AI with confidence and scale its use responsibly.”
The findings come as healthcare organizations prepare to increase spending significantly. Ninety percent of respondents expect their investment in AI and cybersecurity to grow over the next year, even as regulatory requirements and data security concerns remain leading barriers to adoption.
Despite those concerns, respondents are already reporting meaningful benefits from AI, including faster claims processing, reduced administrative burden, improved workflow efficiency, better member and patient experiences, and faster access to insights from healthcare data.
“The findings reveal a significant gap between AI adoption and AI governance,” said Ken Montgomery, publisher of MedCity News. “Healthcare organizations clearly recognize AI's potential and are investing accordingly, but many are still building the governance and security frameworks needed to deploy it responsibly. As AI becomes more deeply integrated across healthcare, closing that gap will be increasingly important.”
Taken together, the Index suggests healthcare’s next phase of AI adoption will be defined not by which organizations deploy AI, but by how effectively they govern, secure and operationalize it.
Read the full Index for additional findings and analysis.
About MedCity News
MedCity News is the leading online news source for the business of innovation in healthcare. MedCity delivers insight into what’s next and what matters, with a mix of breaking news and analysis on startups and established industry leaders, personalities, policies and the most important deals.
Healthcare leaders must stay on top of new technologies, new companies, future trends and the latest policies, with a perspective that includes the entire healthcare ecosystem: health IT and digital health, diagnostics and medical devices, biopharma and emerging tech be it from the Silicon Valley entrants like Apple or Google or e-commerce giants like Amazon or retailers like CVS Health. MedCity News is equally interested in payers and payment reform and the transformation of the industry toward rewarding value.
MedCity News also convenes and hosts conferences around the country homing in on topics that are timely, relevant and exciting. From daily news updates to annual events, MedCity gives readers the chance to speak to and learn from everyone who has a stake in improving healthcare.
About Cotiviti
Cotiviti’s infrastructure platform enables healthcare organizations to deliver better care at lower cost through advanced technology and data analytics that improve the quality and sustainability of healthcare in the United States. Cotiviti’s solutions increase transparency and collaboration between payers and providers while empowering them to reduce medical and administrative costs, enable better health, improve claims payment efficiency, streamline operations, drive interoperability and advance value-based care. Its customers serve the majority of U.S. healthcare consumers, providing coverage and care for over 300 million members and patients. For more information, visit www.cotiviti.com.
The 2026 Healthcare AI Readiness Index found that healthcare organizations are adopting AI faster than they’re building the governance and cybersecurity frameworks needed to use it safely.
WASHINGTON (AP) — JD Vance publicly broke from President Donald Trump 's defense of the Iran war Wednesday after the Republican Party's deep losses in the midterm elections, attempting to distance himself from voters' clear rebuke of the president as the vice president faces questions about his own political ambitions.
Vance, who has said he would decide after the election whether to run for president in 2028, issued a lengthy social media post blaming the unpopular conflict with Iran for the GOP's drubbing. Vance said, "If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.”
But arguing that the war was worth it is what Trump repeatedly did on the campaign trail, continued to do in interviews as election results came in and did again Wednesday morning. As he led reporters on an impromptu visit to the ballroom he's constructing at the White House, Trump said, “The Iran thing, we had to do and we continue to do it."
Trump said he spoke to Vance on Wednesday morning and, when asked about the vice president's post, he called it “good” and said, “I know how he feels about it," and “I think it was fine."
The president also said he “knew the war was going to impact” the midterm elections but again defended his actions.
Vance, who had long advocated for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas, was lukewarm in his defense of the conflict after Trump launched it and even became the face of an unsuccessful attempt to end the fighting.
Democrats showed they intend to make Vance own the war.
“If Vance has felt this way all along, why didn’t he speak out forcefully?” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement. “Why didn’t he resign? And most importantly, why didn’t he stand up for Americans?"
The vice president, she said, "will always do what’s most politically convenient for him in the moment — even if it means throwing Americans under the bus. Vance owns this administration’s failures.”
Democrats swept control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, defeating GOP candidates even in deep-red areas that Trump carried by wide margins two years ago.
“There’s no doubt this is a repudiation of the last two years," said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and worked in Trump’s White House in his first term.
He said Vance will still have a big microphone as the sitting vice president, and the election results don't mean he won't be the GOP's nominee for president in two years.
But, Short said, “It certainly doesn’t help his case, that’s for sure. I would argue it does hurt.”
When Pence was in the role, he intentionally tried not to distance himself from Trump and shared his opinions privately, Short said. But Vance’s post Wednesday seemed to be “an intentional separation” from the president despite being inherently linked to him.
“You made that bargain when you agreed to be vice president," he said.
Vance, in his post, said that Republican voters cast their ballots for Democrats because of the war, the cost of living, America not being prioritized and the U.S. relationship with Israel — a dynamic where he’s also sounded a different note than Trump.
“The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone," he wrote.
Unlike the president, Vance declined to endorseIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection and this summer publicly chastised members of Israel’s government for opposing Trump’s efforts to resolve the war with Iran.
Vance, who has been a staunch defender of the administration’s immigration policies, also appeared to be seeking some distance from the immigration crackdown that drew a backlash.
“I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance,” he wrote.
But he said he rejected any politicians who might propose amnesty for people living in the country illegally.
About 6 in 10 voters said the U.S. made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States. Most of those voters dissatisfied with the Iran war backed the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race, but the survey suggested the Iran war was not the leading issue for most voters.
Only about one-third of voters said the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote for Congress, well below the roughly half who said that about the cost of living or government corruption.
Nearly all voters who backed the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race said going to war with Iran was the “wrong decision,” while roughly 8 in 10 voters who backed the Republican candidate said it was the “right decision.”
A former Marine who served in Iraq, Vance had been critical of that conflict and said after becoming vice president that a Trump administration would not send troops into the “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
After Trump launched the war with Iran this past spring, Vance was noticeably quiet in speaking about it, a conspicuous change for a politician known for being a pugnacious defender of the president.
This summer, he tried to argue the conflict was worth it, telling conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly in an interview that, “If we transformed the Middle East, this is fundamentally worth it."
Associated Press Writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Swanton, Ohio. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)
Vice President JD Vance arrive at a campaign rally at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Swanton, Ohio. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks during for a campaign rally at Griffiss International Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Rome, N.Y. (Tom Brenner/Pool Photo via AP)
