2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Recap

Summary

Bailey & Company sent a senior team to San Francisco to host fireside chats and meet with sponsors, companies and partners during the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM). Moving past the requisite comments about unusually sunny weather, conference goers noted somewhat thinner crowds in Union Square; this was likely driven more by biotech and pharma attendance patterns than by the middle-market M&A ecosystem. Like last year, most firms did attend, but with slightly more junior teams in some cases. With HPE Miami only 8 weeks after JPM this year, both Bailey’s team and many investors indexed on company meetings as opposed to general PE-IB catch-ups.

Key takeaways from our discussions and interactions during JPM include:

1. There was no dominant market “narrative” in middle-market M&A circles at JPM. Expectations for 2026 activity are modest but positive, and sponsors are ready to put capital to work.
2. PE healthcare investment theses are still catching up to the rapid pace of AI transformation, but an early consensus view is emerging that tech-enabled services – especially those that are highly specialized and/or relationship-driven – may be better insulated from disruption than software.
3. Longevity is the new value-based care. Said another way: the science of preventative medicine is advancing rapidly, and forward-thinking sponsors are working to identify the right business models on which to place bets. For instance, we expect to see several more concierge medicine deals announced or in market in the near term.
4. Employer health continues to be highly active, with at least five scaled TPA and cost containment platforms poised for 2026 processes.
5. After a year of regulatory noise, pharma services activity is picking back up, with commercialization-stage (rather than clinical-stage) assets generally preferred.
6. PPMs are resuming add-on M&A in earnest, but platform trades remain quiet.
7. Medicaid remains a hot-button regulatory issue, but with a growing focus on utilization management and payment integrity rather than rate changes.
8. Deal flow increasingly spans high-quality, middling, and underperforming assets – in contrast to previous years, when it seemed that only “A” or “D/F” assets were trading – with valuation expectations set accordingly.
9. PE healthcare fundraising activity dropped in 2025, a predictable result of delayed fund distributions over the past few years. People moves and independent sponsor spinouts appear to have increased of late.
10. We are continuing to see fund strategies evolve in search of better deal flow, with numerous large funds setting aside sleeves and/or raising new, dedicated vehicles to pursue deals at smaller check sizes.

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