HCA Healthcare, Inc.
Leadership History
4 leaders · 2014 to present
Samuel N. Hazen is the CEO of HCA Healthcare, in the role since 2019. The first chief executive was R. Milton Johnson, from 2014.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Schlosser, M.D. | Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer | 2026 | Present | < 1 |
| Michael Marks | Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer | 2023 | Present | 3 |
| Samuel N. Hazen | Chief Executive Officer | 2019 | Present | 7 |
| R. Milton Johnson | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | 2014 | 2018 | 4 |
HCA Healthcare is the largest investor-owned hospital operator in the United States. From its Nashville headquarters it runs 190 hospitals and about 2,600 ambulatory sites in 19 states and England, where its London facilities operate as HCA Healthcare UK. Its biggest regional systems include HCA Florida Healthcare, Medical City Healthcare in North Texas, St. David's HealthCare in Austin and TriStar Health in Tennessee. HCA has traded on the NYSE under the ticker HCA since its 2011 IPO and was valued at about $95 billion in late September 2026. The company is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
HCA earns money by billing for patient care delivered in its hospitals and outpatient facilities. In 2025, managed care and other insurers accounted for 48.9% of revenue, Medicare and managed Medicare 32.7%, Medicaid and managed Medicaid 12.7%, and international and other payers 5.7%. Commercial contracts pay the highest rates, so payer mix drives margins as much as volume does. Hospitals provide emergency, surgical, cardiac, oncology, maternity and other acute services, while surgery centers, freestanding ERs, CareNow urgent care clinics and physician practices widen the network and refer patients into it. Outpatient revenue was 38% of patient revenue in 2025. HCA also runs HealthTrust, a group purchasing organization that buys supplies for HCA and for outside hospitals.
Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer
2026 – Present
0 years (current)
Schlosser spearheads the aggressive integration of predictive AI tools into HCA's clinical workflows to reduce physician burnout and optimize patient triage.
As Senior Vice President of Care Transformation, he bridges the gap between clinical operations and technology across HCA's 180+ hospitals.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
2023 – Present
3 years (current)
Marks executes the massive capital expenditure program, directing billions of dollars into upgrading HCA's surgical robotics and outpatient surgery centers.
As CFO, he manages the financial stability of the massive hospital network amid severe nursing shortages and skyrocketing contract labor costs.
Chief Executive Officer
2019 – Present
7 years (current)
Since becoming CEO in January 2019, Hazen has expanded outpatient networks, bought Mission Health, Galen College of Nursing and CHCP, managed HCA through COVID-19, and created a separate Ambulatory Operations Group in 2026.
HCA's revenue grew from $51.3 billion in 2019 to $75.6 billion in 2025 under Hazen, a 43-year company veteran who previously served as president and COO.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
2014 – 2018
4 years
Johnson led HCA through the highly complex implementation of the Affordable Care Act, capitalizing on the massive influx of newly insured patients to drive record profits.
As CEO, he aggressively pushed the company to acquire massive regional health systems, cementing HCA's status as the largest for-profit hospital operator in the US.
HCA faces nurse and clinician labor pressure, physician contracting costs, regulatory scrutiny, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement changes, cyber and technology risks, and geographic concentration in Florida and Texas. The company also has to keep quality outcomes high while scaling outpatient services.
Recent HCA CEOs include Jack Bovender Jr. (2001-2009), Richard Bracken (2009-2013), R. Milton Johnson (2014-2018) and Samuel N. Hazen (2019-present). Co-founder Dr. Thomas Frist Jr. led the company in earlier periods.
Under Sam Hazen, HCA managed through COVID-19, bought Mission Health (2019), Galen College of Nursing (2020) and The College of Health Care Professions (2026), and grew revenue from $51.3 billion in 2019 to $75.6 billion in 2025.
Jack Bovender led HCA during the 2006 buyout by Bain Capital, KKR, Merrill Lynch and the Frist family, and Richard Bracken was CEO when HCA returned to the NYSE in March 2011 in an IPO of about $3.8 billion.
Sam Hazen joined HCA in 1983. Before becoming CEO in 2019 he served as president and chief operating officer, president of operations and president of the Western Group.
Hazen's team includes CFO Mike Marks; Dr. Michael Schlosser, executive vice president and chief clinical officer from September 1, 2026; and Charles Gressle, president of the Ambulatory Operations Group formed in 2026.
HCA discloses its executive pay framework in its annual proxy statement, which links incentive pay to financial targets such as EBITDA along with other measures.
Yes. Sam Hazen remained CEO as of September 2026 and testified to the House Ways and Means Committee as HCA's CEO in 2026.
Sam Hazen's vision is to make HCA the premier patient-centered healthcare provider in every community it serves, expanding comprehensive networks of care, leading medical workforce education, and leveraging clinical data intelligence to save lives.
Sam Hazen currently serves as CEO, essentially acting as a highly efficient, operations-focused executive. The most infamous CEO in company history is Rick Scott (who ran HCA during the massive fraud scandal and was forced to resign, leaving with a highly controversial $300 million golden parachute before entering politics).
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