Financial pressure — from Medicaid cuts to rising labor and technology costs — has pushed a growing number of hospitals and health systems to hand IT functions to outside vendors this year.
Below are four health systems that have outsourced some or all of their IT operations in 2026, as reported by Becker’s:
1. Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.) is outsourcing its IT service desk and applications support to an outside technology partner it has not yet named. The shift will affect 557 positions across 120 job titles, according to a Sept. 3 WARN notice filed with Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Affected roles span service desk support, applications analysis and engineering, identity and access management, and database administration. The 90-plus-hospital Catholic system said the transition will roll out in phases, with completion targeted by the end of 2026. Affected employees, whose roles involve internal tech support rather than clinical or patient-facing work, will get transition support and the chance to apply for new roles with Trinity Health or the incoming vendor. The move follows a January decision to shift certain revenue cycle functions to an external partner, cutting that department’s workforce by 10.5%. Trinity Health cited the accelerating pace and complexity of healthcare technology as the main driver, while also pointing to broader financial pressures, including reimbursement cuts and rising care costs.
2. UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa) said in April it would eliminate 207 IT roles as it moves some IT and revenue cycle functions to third-party vendors. The change affects less than 1% of the system’s 31,000-member workforce. Affected employees are being offered severance, continuation of benefits and career transition support. In July, the system said it would transition certain revenue cycle functions to Omega Healthcare later this year.
3. PeaceHealth (Vancouver, Wash.) said July 29 that it will transition several IT support services to global IT provider Tech Mahindra and its U.S.-based healthcare subsidiary, The HCI Group, starting in November. The system expects fewer than 250 employees to be affected, or less than 1.5% of its workforce, a spokesperson said in a statement to Becker’s. Of those, 150 positions will be permanently eliminated across its Washington facilities Nov. 20, according to a Sept. 17 WARN notice; most are based at the system’s shared services center in Vancouver. PeaceHealth said it will retain control of IT strategy, technology decisions and cybersecurity oversight, that no direct patient-care roles will be eliminated and that on-site tech support will not decrease. The move follows earlier 2026 workforce reductions at the nonprofit system, including a February layoff of 94 employees.
4. Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health said in March it would lay off coding staff at its Canton-Potsdam and Gouverneur hospitals as part of what it called a “targeted operational change” to reduce duplication and align administrative functions systemwide. Coding is a revenue cycle function rather than IT, though the system said the change follows prior technology and workflow updates. According to 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the layoffs affected 22 union members, were scheduled for early April and were tied to plans to outsource the coding work. More than 1,000 employees and community members signed a union-backed petition urging the health system’s board to reconsider, arguing that local knowledge of billing and coding is difficult to replace and that outsourcing has destabilized finances at other rural hospitals.
Editor’s note: This running list was updated Sept. 28 and is not exhaustive. If you know of other health systems that should be on this list, please email gbruce@beckershealthcare.com.
