ACA WAY 2026 Brings CMS and Oscar Health to the Main Stage for a Look at What's Ahead on Regulation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MIAMI, FL — August 12, 2026 Regulation shapes far more than compliance checklists in the ACA marketplace. It affects how carriers build products, how agents talk with consumers, how technology gets developed, and how the entire industry plans for what comes next. Few forces determine the shape of this industry as directly, and few conversations offer as clear a window into it as hearing from the people who write the rules and the people who operationalize them.

That's the subject of Regulatory Reality Check, a Main Stage conversation at ACA WAY 2026 featuring Peter J. Nelson, Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), alongside Cathy Grason, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Head of Government Affairs at Oscar Health.

CCIIO is the CMS center responsible for implementing much of the federal policy that governs the private health insurance market and the Health Insurance Marketplace, giving Nelson a direct view into how rules are written and rolled out before the rest of the industry ever sees them. Grason's work at Oscar Health sits closer to the ground, where legal strategy and government affairs meet the practical realities of running an ACA carrier inside that same regulatory framework. Pairing those two vantage points on one stage is not something attendees get the chance to see often.

"Regulation touches almost every part of this industry and understanding what is coming matters long before a new rule officially takes effect," said Sherry Feijoo, CEO of ACA WAY. "Having Peter and Cathy together gives our attendees the opportunity to hear how policy is being shaped and how those decisions are experienced by the organizations working within the marketplace every day."

Two Perspectives, Built from Years Inside the System

Nelson was named Deputy Administrator and Director of CCIIO in February 2025. It's a return to the agency for him: he previously served CMS from 2017 to 2021 as Senior Advisor to the Administrator, where his work centered on the development and implementation of insurance market regulations and state innovation waivers. In between his two stints at CMS, he was a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, where he focused on the intersection of state and national health care policy. He holds a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School and a bachelor's degree in economics from Wheaton College. Few people in the country have spent as much time on both sides of ACA rulemaking, first shaping it from a policy institute and now leading the CMS center responsible for carrying it out.

Grason brings a regulatory background built from the inside out. Before joining Oscar Health, she served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Maryland Insurance Administration, where her work involved listening directly to consumers, agents, and insurers and translating that feedback into policy and operational changes for the state. Earlier in her career, she was legislative counsel for Aegon/Transamerica Life Insurance. She holds a law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. At Oscar Health, she now leads the government affairs function and works closely with the legal team to help the company operate within, and respond to, the federal and state rules that shape the ACA marketplace. Her career has given her a working knowledge of regulation from the state regulator's desk and from the carrier's side of the table.

Together, Nelson and Grason bring a combined view of ACA regulation that spans a federal agency, a state insurance department, and a national carrier; perspectives attendees are unlikely to find assembled in one place outside of ACA WAY.

What the Conversation Will Cover

The session is built to go beyond a recap of recent rule changes. Nelson and Grason will discuss what agents, carriers, and marketplace partners should be watching for, how organizations can prepare ahead of formal guidance, and what the current regulatory environment could mean for the ACA marketplace over the next several years.

For agents and agencies, that includes how new requirements can shape enrollment practices, consumer conversations, and documentation. For carriers, FMOs, and technology companies, it can mean rethinking operational decisions, product development, and distribution strategy well before a rule takes effect. Attendees who sit down for this session will walk away with a clearer sense of where the industry is headed and what to do about it now, rather than finding out secondhand once a rule is already final.

Regulatory awareness has become part of how organizations plan, not just how they stay compliant.

"The goal of ACA WAY has always been to create the kinds of conversations people cannot get from reading a memo after the fact," Feijoo said. "When the people shaping policy and the people navigating its real-world impact can share the same stage, the entire industry benefits from a clearer understanding of what comes next."

Why This Session Is Worth Your Time

Direct access to a sitting CMS director is rare at an industry conference, and pairing that access with a carrier's government affairs leader gives attendees something a press release or a policy memo can't: the chance to ask questions and hear the reasoning behind the rules in real time. For agents building their book of business, for agency owners setting compliance strategy, and for carriers and FMOs planning the next product cycle, this is a session to build a schedule around rather than one to catch on a replay.

Why Now

The session arrives as agents, carriers, and compliance teams prepare for another consequential period in the individual health insurance market. Understanding how CMS is approaching current rulemaking, paired with a carrier's perspective on implementing it, gives attendees context they can act on rather than react to later.

Regulatory Reality Check is part of the ACA WAY 2026 Main Stage program, which brings together leaders from healthcare, insurance, technology, policy, and business for two days of conversation about the forces shaping the industry.

About ACA WAY 2026

ACA WAY is a national conference dedicated to the advancement and evolution of the Affordable Care Act and the broader healthcare ecosystem. The conference brings together carrier executives, FMO leaders, agency owners, brokers, independent agents, policymakers, compliance professionals, healthcare advocates, and technology leaders for two days of education, strategic conversation, and relationship-building.

ACA WAY 2026 takes place September 23–24 at the Hilton Miami Downtown and features keynote presentations, expert-led panels, exhibitions, and networking with professionals influencing the future of healthcare access and insurance distribution.

Event Information

ACA WAY 2026 ​

September 23 to 24, 2026 ​

Hilton Miami Downtown ​

1601 Biscayne Boulevard ​

Miami, Florida 33132 ​

Registration and additional event information are available at theacaway.com.

Media Contact

Megan Whitehead ​

Director of Corporate Relations ​

hi@theacaway.com