Kevin Hammons

The CFO Who Sells Hospitals

President and Chief Executive Officer, Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH)

Director, 2027Acute care, 59 hospitals

Last verified November 6, 2026

Hospitals at Oct. 28, 2026, down from 69

$9.6B

Total debt, Sept. 30, 2026

$262M

DOJ settlement, 2018

19,000+

Patient debt lawsuits since March 2020 (CNN, 2021)

Overview

Kevin Hammons spent 28 years at Community Health Systems, the last five as chief financial officer, before becoming CEO on December 10, 2025. His job is to shrink the company. CHS has sold or exited 15 hospitals since the start of 2025 and is down to 59 in 12 states, from 69 a year earlier. Debt is $9.6 billion. Q3 2026 brought a $86 million loss and a 10.7% drop in revenue. Hammons told investors payer mix and acuity did not develop as expected.

Since April 2026

What has changed

April 1, 2026Crestwood Medical Center sale closes at $459 million. source
April 2, 20262026 proxy: Hammons's 2025 pay $4.8 million; ratio 60:1; base salary $1.25 million. source
June 1, 2026Four Arkansas hospitals sold to Freeman Health System for $110 million. source
July 23, 2026Q2 2026 10-Q: the company says it may pursue further divestitures. source
October 14, 2026FAH 2027 slate lists Hammons as Director, now as CHS President and CEO. source
October 28, 2026Q3 2026: revenue down 10.7%, net loss $86 million, 59 hospitals in 12 states. source

The company

Community Health Systems

•2025 net operating revenues $12.5 billion, down 1.2%. Net income $509 million, helped by divestiture gains, after a $516 million loss in 2024. 69 hospitals in 14 states at year end (10-K, 2025).
•Q3 2026: revenue $2.76 billion, down 10.7%. Net loss $86 million. Nine-month loss $74 million. 59 hospitals in 12 states at October 28, 2026. Cash on hand $155 million, down from $260 million at year end.
•Total debt $10.4 billion at December 31, 2025 and $9.59 billion at September 30, 2026, down from $11.45 billion a year earlier.
•2025 divestitures: four hospitals and majority interests in three others, with 2024 revenue near $792 million, for net proceeds over $1.0 billion.
•Roughly 57,000 employees at December 31, 2025 (2026 proxy).
•Hammons: interim CEO from October 1, 2025; CEO and director since December 10, 2025; CFO 2020 to 2025. He joined CHS in 1997 after ten years at a Big Four audit firm.

Ownership and control

•Widely held public company. No controlling stockholder, private equity sponsor or sovereign stake.
•CHS bought Health Management Associates on January 27, 2014 for roughly $7.6 billion including assumed debt. HMA's conduct produced the 2018 DOJ settlement.

Settlements, investigations and lawsuits

•September 25, 2018: $262 million to resolve the HMA matters: a $216 million civil False Claims Act settlement plus $35 million in criminal penalties. Carlisle HMA, former operator of a Pennsylvania hospital, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy. The allegations: improperly admitting emergency patients as inpatients, and kickbacks.
•September 23, 2020: $2.3 million to HHS over the 2014 cyberattack that exposed 6.1 million people's health information, plus a two-year corrective action plan.
•October 2020: $5 million to 28 state attorneys general over the same breach.
•May 2021: CNN found CHS hospitals had filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against patients for unpaid bills since March 13, 2020. CHS said its policy is not to sue patients earning under 200% of the federal poverty level.
•No new DOJ, False Claims Act, state enforcement action or data breach involving CHS was found for January 2025 through November 6, 2026.

Compensation

Year	Total compensation	CEO-to-worker pay ratio
2025	$4,772,869 (CEO from Oct. 1, 2025)	60:1
2024	Not applicable (Hammons was CFO; CEO Tim Hingtgen: $7,629,625)	Not found

Deals since 2025

•2025: sold Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (NC) to Duke for $284 million. Also sold two ShorePoint hospitals (FL) to AdventHealth, 80% of Cedar Park Regional (TX) to Ascension, and half-interests in two Mississippi hospitals.
•December 1, 2025: sold Northwest Health Physicians' Specialty Hospital (AR) to Washington Regional. Labcorp bought the outreach lab business.
•February 1, 2026: sold 80% of Tennova Healthcare Clarksville to Vanderbilt for $623 million. Sold three Pennsylvania hospitals to Tenor Health Foundation for $33 million cash plus a $15 million note.
•April 1, 2026: sold Crestwood Medical Center (Huntsville, AL) to Huntsville Hospital Health System for $459 million.
•June 1, 2026: sold four Northwest Arkansas hospitals to Freeman Health System for $110 million.
•One more hospital left the count between September 30 and October 28, 2026. Details not found.

Political giving

•November 10, 2025: $5,000 to Federation of American Hospitals PAC (FEC).
•March 7, 2026: $1,000 to Trump National Committee JFC and $775 to Never Surrender, Inc. (FEC).
•May 1 and June 30, 2026: $500 and $1,033.06 to Joe Mitchell for Congress (FEC).
•June 30, 2026: $1,000 to Lawler for Congress (FEC).

Red flags

Conflicts and concerns

CHS sued at least 19,000 of its own patients during the first 14 months of the pandemic.

The HMA settlement included a guilty plea by a CHS subsidiary for conspiracy tied to admitting emergency patients who did not need a bed.

A 2014 breach exposed 6.1 million people and cost $7.3 million in federal and state settlements.

The company is selling hospitals to pay down $9.6 billion of debt while losing money on the ones it keeps.

Physician-owned hospitals

CHS is the clearest case of what the POH ban protects: a highly leveraged chain that cannot compete and is selling hospitals to survive. Its buyers in 2025 and 2026 were nonprofit systems, Duke, Vanderbilt, AdventHealth and Ascension, never physicians, because physicians cannot own a Medicare hospital. Lifting the ban would create a second class of buyer for the hospitals CHS still has to sell.

Sources