Health systems turning IT work over to outside vendors in 2026 have mostly framed the moves as a response to financial pressure and the growing complexity of healthcare technology.
The details they have disclosed in news releases, WARN notices and statements to Becker’s also show which jobs are leaving. In most of the deals, vendors are taking over the work of supporting and running health system technology, while the health systems hold on to strategy, technology decisions and cybersecurity. At least one has gone further.
Here are six hospital IT jobs moving to vendors, as reported by Becker’s:
1. IT service desk. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is moving its IT service desk to an outside technology partner it has not publicly named, part of an outsourcing shift that will affect 557 positions across 120 job titles, according to a Sept. 3 WARN notice. Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth is transitioning several IT support services to Tech Mahindra and its U.S.-based healthcare subsidiary, The HCI Group, starting in November. PeaceHealth said IT support will remain on-site at its facilities.
2. Applications analysts and engineers. Trinity’s outsourcing also covers applications support, affecting applications analysis and engineering roles. The 90-plus-hospital Catholic system said the pace and complexity of healthcare technology have made it increasingly difficult for a single organization to keep up on its own.
3. Identity and access management, database administration. Trinity’s affected roles also include identity and access management and database administration. The system said its patient data security requirements will not change, since any partner must meet its existing privacy and compliance standards.
4. Information systems and analytics. Some health systems have moved entire technology departments to vendors, with employees changing employers but continuing to support the same system. In 2023, Brewer, Maine-based Northern Light Health transferred 1,400 office-based employees to Optum, including staff in information systems, analytics and project management, and Waukesha, Wis.-based ProHealth Care agreed to have Optum hire more than 800 of its employees and manage its revenue cycle, IT, informatics, analytics and inpatient care management. In May 2024, about 2,000 information systems and revenue cycle employees at Minneapolis-based Allina Health moved to Optum.
5. Revenue cycle and coding. Revenue cycle work, which often travels with IT in these deals, is moving too. Trinity cut 10.5% of its revenue cycle workforce in January and shifted that work to an external partner. West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, which is eliminating 207 IT roles as it moves IT functions to Accenture, said in July it would transition certain revenue cycle functions to Omega Healthcare. Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health laid off coding staff at two hospitals in April; 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East tied the layoffs, which affected 22 union members, to plans to outsource the coding work.
6. CIO. Optum is recruiting a health system CIO in Waukesha, Wis., according to an Oct. 9 UnitedHealth Group job posting. The posting does not name the health system, but Waukesha-based ProHealth Care handed its IT, informatics and analytics to Optum in 2023. The posting describes the role as “the health system’s senior technology leader and Optum’s accountable executive for the Market Performance Partnership.” The CIO would own the cybersecurity and strategic roadmap for the health system’s EHR and other systems and would report to an Optum senior vice president.
PeaceHealth drew the line most explicitly. The system said it will continue to set IT strategy, make technology decisions, oversee cybersecurity and protect patient information.
Providence, R.I.-based Care New England, which moved nearly 160 IT staffers to IBM spinoff Kyndryl, kept about a dozen senior IT staffers.
“This wasn’t about saving money,” Tom Gregorio, senior vice president and chief digital information officer, told Becker’s. “It was about having the muscle to reach the next level as a health system.”
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