Wayne T. Smith

Early in his career Smith served as a captain[2] in the Medical Service Corps of the United States Army.[11] Around 1974[2] he responded to a newspaper advertisement for a job at Humana Inc.,[11][2] a healthcare corporation based in Louisville, Kentucky. Proceeding to work at the company for twenty-three years,[1][2] Smith served as Humana's president and chief operating officer (COO)[4] from 1993 to 1996,[1] and also served on the board of directors.[12]

In January 1997 he became the president of Community Health Systems (CHS),[1] a health care company based in Franklin, Tennessee.[13] He was also appointed to chief executive officer (CEO) of CHS in April 1997, while retaining his role as president.[1][10] At the time he joined the company, its annual revenues were $740 million.[13] He was appointed chairman of CHS in February 2001,[1][10] subsequently serving as CHS president, CEO, and chairman simultaneously.[14] Smith's "leadership skills and knowledge of the industry" earned him a position as chairman of the Federation of American Hospitals in May 2003.[14]

In 2006, Smith was ranked second on the Business Journal's list of highest-paid public-company CEOs among Nashville area executives. The publication asserted that CHS, with Smith as head, had the third-best company performance on the list.[15] Smith in 2007 led the CHS acquisition of Triad Hospitals, a company in Plano, Texas. The purchase came close to doubling the size of CHS and added over 50 hospitals.[2] The following year, CHS controlled 119 hospitals[6] in 28 states[13] and had $10.9 billion in revenue.[6] According to Becker's Hospital Review, between 1997 and 2010 Smith led one of the healthcare industry's strongest records of annual compound growth, bringing CHS' net revenue from $742 million to around $13 billion.[2]

The Business Journal ranked Smith as "fairly paid" comparative to CHS' performance in both 2009[16] and 2015.[17] In contrast, between 2011[18] and 2016 the Nashville Business Journal named Smith to their list of Nashville's Most Overpaid CEOs.[19][20][21][22][23] In 2011, CHS shareholders overwhelmingly voted "no" on say on pay,[24] repeating the vote in 2016.[25] With the CHS board terming the 2011 vote "disappointing,"[24] as a result the base salary of CHS executives was frozen in 2012 and 2013,[26] including Smith's.[24] In 2012, CHS's compensation committee defended Smith's "highest paid CEO" status within the Nashville area,[27] arguing his "extensive experience" warranted competitive pay, as "revenue and earnings have grown consistently since 2009."[27]

By April 2013, CHS had 135 "acute-care hospitals in non-urban areas" in 29 states,[28] with 20,000 beds. It was also the "second largest publicly traded hospital management company" in the United States.[28] Major CHS projects overseen by Smith around this time included[28] a clinical quality alliance with Cleveland Clinic.[4] Smith also oversaw the January 2014[2] completion of CHS' $7.6 billion acquisition of Naples, Florida-based Health Management Associates,[3] which made CHS the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States[4] and added 70 hospitals to its control.[3] By the end of the year, CHS hospitals totaled 207.[4] In 2014 the company reported around $18.6 billion in net revenue, with the growth primarily attributed to "acquisitions and improved operations."[2]

By the spring of 2015 CHS had around 200 total hospitals[2] in 29 states,[3] with approximately 135,000 staff and 22,000 physicians. It also remained the "largest hospital operator by acute care facilities" in the United States.[2] Smith announced a "massive expansion" into Antioch, Tennessee in May 2015. Projected to be complete by 2017, Smith asserted the project would bring 1,600 new jobs to Davidson County by 2020.[3] CHS sold off a number of underperforming hospitals in 2015, with The Tennessean reporting that CHS revenues were lower than expected throughout 2015 partly due to "issues with some hospitals" acquired from Health Management Associates in 2014. Lower revenues in the health care industry at large were also cited as a factor, with Smith asserting that CHS would focus on "growth markets" to compensate.[29] In what he described as an effort to build "statewide networks" to maximize market share, in December 2015 Smith approved the acquisition of 80 percent ownership of two Indiana hospitals.[30] In 2015 revenue for CHS equaled $19 billion.[6] On October 3, 2016, CHS was removed from the S&P MidCap 400 and added to the S&P SmallCap 600.[31] November 2016, Administrative Law Judge Christopher Larsen awards $1.9 million to a former CHS CFO (https://www.oalj.dol.gov/Decisions/ALJ/SOX/2014/BECKER_GREGG_v_CHS-ROCKWOOD_CLINIC__2014SOX00044_(NOV_09_2016)_130146_CADEC_SD.PDF)