MaineHealth plans to cut 83 positions in its information technology and analytics departments as part of a redesign it says will meet changing patient needs while reducing the cost of care.

The health system, which owns Maine Medical Center in Portland and eight other hospitals as well as several practices across Maine, said in a written statement Tuesday that it will cut 56 IT positions and 27 of its 63 analytics positions, consolidating three teams into one.

No patient-facing roles will be impacted. The changes will take place over the next four to six weeks, said John Porter, spokesperson for MaineHealth.

Health systems are feeling the effects of changing federal healthcare policy and reimbursement, as well as advances in technology, Porter said in Tuesday’s statement. The redesign is aimed to cut costs without diminishing patient care.

“Healthcare is changing, and we must continue to evolve with it,” said Kelly Elkins, chief operating officer of MaineHealth. “Periodically redesigning how work is organized helps ensure we have the right capabilities to meet the changing needs of our patients and communities while reducing the total cost of care.”

Not every position reduction will necessarily result in a layoff, Porter said. Affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for roles in the redesigned analytics organization, which will include 36 positions, or elsewhere in MaineHealth’s staff of 24,000.

Still, he said, “these redesigns will result in fewer positions than exist today.”

Most of MaineHealth’s IT department works from its office in Westbrook, soon to become the system’s administrative headquarters, while others work remotely. Porter said the cuts will impact positions throughout the health system.

Information technology is evolving with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. More than a quarter of computer programming jobs disappeared between 2023 and 2025, according to a Washington Post report, and an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics and OpenAI data found that 66% of programming tasks are more likely to be automated by generative AI. Other studies have found job market effects to be muted.

This year, Central Maine Healthcare in Lewiston laid off 50 IT workers while transitioning to Epic, a cloud-based electronic health record system with a number of AI features.

MaineHealth has long used Epic for patient charts. Porter said the health system is not planning to replace the 83 positions with any one new technology, but “it’s always the case that we’re looking at new tools and new technologies.” Recently, that includes working with Palantir Technologies to identify patterns in insurance denials.

“We’re a big organization,” Porter said, “and we’re implementing, on a smaller or larger scale, new stuff all the time.”

The health system said it will communicate directly with affected employees as future organizational changes occur.