Longtime Providence President and CEO Rod Hochman will retire at the end of the year after serving at the Renton, Washington-based company for 17 years, Providence announced Wednesday.
Providence’s board of directors is in the process of selecting Hochman’s successor, who will oversee the health system’s network of 51 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics across seven states.
Hochman will become CEO emeritus effective Jan. 1.
Hochman led the nonprofit health system through multiple expansions, including its 2016 merger with St. Joseph Health.
The executive departs as Providence weathers financial challenges. The operator reported a $6.1 billion net loss in 2022 and an almost $600 million net loss in 2023 as it struggled to contain rising expenses.
Providence has taken steps to rein in costs, including making cuts to its executive team in 2022. However, the operator has a negative long-term credit outlook, according to Fitch Ratings.
The health system has also been accused of skirting its charity care duties, which require nonprofit health systems to provide reduced or free medical care for low-income patients, in an Oregon consumer probe and a separate investigation by the Washington attorney general.
Although Providence said Hochman oversaw more than $2.1 billion in annual charity care and community benefits, the health system has issued refunds to low-income patients at least twice recently for wrongfully charged care — once in 2022 and again this February.
