Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems is using AI, revenue cycle automation and a systemwide enterprise resource planning transformation to drive efficiency as it continues to reshape its hospital portfolio.
During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Feb. 19, CHS executives shared how a multiyear Oracle cloud ERP rollout —combined with expanding AI use cases across administrative and clinical functions — is positioning the for-profit health system for scalable performance despite significant divestitures.
Over the past several years, CHS has sold roughly 35% of its hospital portfolio. Yet net revenue remains near pre-divestiture levels — $12.5 billion in 2025 compared to about $13 billion in 2019 — while EBITDA has remained relatively close.
“We’ve sold about 35% of our portfolio,” CEO Kevin Hammons said during the earnings call. “But our net revenues this past year were $12.5 billion. And the EBITDA is also relatively close, even though we have 35% fewer facilities.”
CHS attributed that stability to operational leverage increasingly supported by digital infrastructure and automation.
ERP rollout yields $50M in first-year savings
CHS completed its systemwide cloud-based Oracle ERP implementation Jan. 1, 2025, finishing a multiyear transformation that centralized finance, supply chain, HR and payroll functions on a single platform.
“It was a significant undertaking,” Executive Vice President and CFO Jason Johnson told Becker’s. “We’re now on a single application for finance, supply chain, human capital, HR and payroll, and we’ve standardized many processes across these areas.”
According to CHS, the ERP generated about $50 million in savings in 2025 alone. Savings stemmed from eliminating duplicative financial systems, consolidating platforms into one cloud-based environment and standardizing processes enterprise-wide, but executives say that figure represents only the beginning.
“We believe there’s a runway over the next couple years for us to continue to increase the savings that we’re getting out of that,” Mr. Hammons said.
One of the most tangible operational improvements has been in finance operations. CHS shortened its monthly financial close process by about 10% and is targeting an additional 10% reduction.
“That’s a recurring benefit,” Mr. Hammons told Becker’s. “It frees up staff time for other work, reduces the effort required to close the books and, most importantly, gets information into operators’ hands much more quickly. That enables more timely decision-making.
“Having faster access to information is a major advantage. It allows leaders to act on current data, rather than waiting on historical reports, and that will lead to greater financial benefit over time.”
Finance leaders now have dashboards that allow executives and hospital operators to drill into expense drivers and operational metrics in near real time.
Supply chain leverage at scale
Standardized data is also strengthening CHS’ supply chain strategy.
For the first time, CHS has a single item master across the enterprise, giving leaders real-time visibility into purchasing activity.
“Pick an item that you purchased,” Mr. Hammons said during the earnings call. “We have almost instantaneous visibility to how many of those items are purchased across the entire system.”
Previously, that required aggregating data from multiple systems. The unified platform now supports contract compliance, systemwide bulk purchasing, enterprise-level negotiations and real-time analytics on medical supply utilization.
Executives said that scale leverage is critical as CHS continues adding beds and expanding outpatient sites while divesting certain hospitals.
Revenue cycle: AI moves upstream
AI is also playing a growing role in CHS’ revenue cycle operations.
“We’re already using some AI in our appeals process and some autonomous coding,” Mr. Hammons said.
“And some of the software that we’re using in our revenue cycle … those vendors are building out some AI technology or components within their products that we’ll be able to take advantage [of],” he said. “This should help us with charge capture as well as some prior authorization.”
The health system is evaluating additional AI use cases, particularly in prior authorization, an area increasingly shaped by payer complexity.
Because many centralized services — including the revenue cycle and CHS’ new shared business center— are transactional, executives said staffing can flex with volume shifts tied to divestitures or expansion.
“Many of our centralized services are volume related,” Mr. Hammons said. “As we divest facilities and reduce the number of transactions we’re processing, we can scale those accordingly. Also keep in mind, we’ve been adding significant numbers of beds to our existing hospitals, even though we’ve been divesting some hospitals with our capital projects over the last several years.”
That scalability becomes increasingly important as CHS adds freestanding EDs, surgery centers and clinics while reshaping its inpatient footprint.
Digital scale amid portfolio reshaping
Even as it has sold hospitals, CHS has added between 500 and 600 beds to its core portfolio, expanded freestanding EDs, opened new ASCs and invested in outpatient clinics.
Executives said the ERP and centralized operations model allow the health system to manage that evolving footprint without proportionally increasing overhead.
“We keep a close eye on our overhead costs,” Mr. Hammons said. “We’ve been very efficient with those costs.”
The strategy reflects a broader shift among health systems: fewer facilities, but higher-performing assets supported by centralized digital infrastructure and automation.
