100 Most Influential People in Healthcare - 2017

• Compensation: $5,800,000 - according to 2016 Nashville Business Journal

• Years on list: 16

Smith joined Community Health Systems as president and CEO in 1997, and in 2001 was named chairman. He built the chain into the U.S.' second-largest, investor-owned hospital chain with more than 150 hospitals. But the $7.6 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates in 2013 loaded CHS with debt. Its HMA hospitals have underperformed, causing CHS to announce the divestiture of 30 hospitals in the past year with more to come.