At the CHIME25 Fall Forum, Jason Z. Rose, CEO of Clearsense, opened the Day 2 policy keynote with a clear message: data now sits at the center of every major decision health systems must make—cost optimization, AI readiness, cybersecurity, interoperability, and everything in between.
The pressures shaping those decisions are only intensifying. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) cuts, rising operating costs, and shifting reimbursement models are forcing CIOs to identify cost levers that deliver real, near-term impact.
One of those levers is already well known. A recent research note by Gartner® titled, “Innovation Insight: Decommission Legacy Healthcare IT to Reduce Technical Debt and Related Costs” found that legacy decommissioning has demonstrable ROI and effectively optimizes IT costs—freeing budgets for innovation while reducing technical debt and operational overhead. And real-world examples—such as the Gartner case study on Trinity Health’s partnership with Clearsense—illustrate how a structured decommissioning model can rapidly reduce technical debt and free up meaningful operating expense.
So why aren’t more health systems capturing this value?
That question took center stage not just in the keynote—but in what CIOs shared offstage. Through a Clearsense survey of CHIME members and a hands-on focus group discussion, a consistent pattern emerged:
Most CIOs see application rationalization as critical to cost optimization. Yet very few organizations have the operating model, governance, or financial clarity needed to execute it at scale.
The survey results reveal just how wide the gap really is.
1. Application Rationalization: Critical, But Underdeveloped
According to the survey, 76% of CIOs say application rationalization is important or critical to their application portfolio management strategy, and more than a third identify it as a major driver of cost savings.
Yet despite this overwhelming support:
This disconnect—strong strategic alignment but limited execution—is the core challenge facing CIOs heading into 2026.
2. “As Needed” Decision-Making Slows Progress
Among the organizations that have started, the survey shows most do not follow a consistent, governance-driven process.
It’s no surprise, then, that only 20% of leaders describe their application decommissioning efforts as “highly successful.”
CIOs are not lacking conviction—they’re lacking a repeatable operating model.
3. What’s Holding CIOs Back? Structural Barriers
When asked about the biggest barriers to application decommissioning, CIOs pointed to nearly identical themes:
These aren’t technical hurdles—they’re organizational ones. They reflect the absence of structure, transparency, and shared decision-making across the enterprise.
What CIOs Need Next: A Modern Operating Model That Finally Works
In fairness, application rationalization has been notoriously difficult to execute. Traditional decommissioning efforts were slow, sequential, and heavily manual—often stalled by unclear ownership, inconsistent cost data, and the sheer effort required to retire even a handful of applications. As Jason noted in a recent Forbes article, that’s how “zombie apps” end up lingering for decades.
But that landscape is shifting.
With Clearsense’s frameworks and modern data-enablement platform, large-scale decommissioning is no longer a multi-year, manual effort. Standardized playbooks, automated data onboarding, and active archiving give health systems the structure and velocity needed to reduce costs and modernize at scale.
Looking Ahead
CHIME25 underscored a truth the survey made unmistakable: The barrier to application rationalization isn’t belief—it’s execution.
CIOs see the value. Gartner has validated the ROI. Real-world examples prove the model. And financial headwinds are raising the stakes.
The next stage of modernization will belong to the health systems that build structured, scalable programs to retire legacy systems, reduce technical debt, and strengthen their data foundation for AI and advanced analytics.
Clearsense will continue working alongside CIOs to help make that transition possible—turning what has long been a missed opportunity into a powerful engine for cost savings and innovation.
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