Case Study: How a 12-Hospital Network Saved $1.2M on Telecom in 6 Months

SpendWire Team•4 min read•November 11, 2026

A regional healthcare network discovered $1.2 million in annual telecom waste across 47 locations using AI-powered auditing.

A regional healthcare network operating 12 hospitals, 28 outpatient clinics, and 7 administrative offices engaged SpendWire to audit their telecom spend after a new CFO questioned why telecom costs had grown 35% in three years while patient volume grew only 12%.

The Starting Point

Environment

47 total locations across 4 states

Monthly telecom spend: $487,000

Carriers: AT&T (voice and data), Verizon (wireless), Lumen (MPLS WAN), Comcast (internet at smaller clinics), plus 6 regional carriers

Phone system: mix of Avaya on-premise PBX at hospitals and Cisco at clinics

4,200 employees with 1,800 wireless devices

312 POTS lines (fire alarms, elevators, fax machines)

Initial Assessment

SpendWire ingested 14 months of invoices from all carriers (over 2,400 individual invoices totaling 18,000+ pages). The AI analysis completed in 3 hours and identified $1.2 million in annual optimization opportunities.

Savings Breakdown

Category 1: Unused Services — $340,000/year

187 phone lines billing for employees who had left the organization (average tenure of ghost lines: 14 months)

23 data circuits at 3 closed clinic locations still billing at full rate

94 wireless devices with zero usage for 90+ days

41 conference bridge accounts with no activity in 6 months

Category 2: Rate Optimization — $310,000/year

Wireless plans mismatched to usage: 620 devices on $75 unlimited plans using under 2 GB (moved to $40 plans)

MPLS circuits contracted at 2019 rates, now 28% above current market

Long distance charges on lines that should have been on unlimited plans

International calling charges for 3 clinics with immigrant patient populations (switched to $12/user international plan)

Category 3: POTS Line Replacement — $215,000/year

312 POTS lines at $85-140 per line per month ($370,000 annual cost)

Replaced 280 lines with cellular POTS alternatives at $25-35 per line

Kept 32 lines where fire marshal required copper (pending code update)

Net annual savings after replacement costs: $215,000

Category 4: Billing Errors — $185,000/year

Incorrect tax jurisdiction on 14 locations (wrong county codes applied after address changes)

HIPAA premium charged on 89 non-clinical administrative lines

Promotional credits that expired and were never renegotiated

Duplicate charges for circuits that had been upgraded but old circuits not disconnected

Category 5: Technology Migration — $150,000/year

6 smaller clinics migrated from on-premise Cisco to cloud PBX ($8,200/month savings)

Conference bridge service replaced with existing Microsoft Teams licenses ($4,300/month savings)

Implementation Timeline

Month 1: disconnect unused services ($340,000 annual savings, immediate impact)

Month 2-3: file billing disputes and correct tax codes ($185,000, credits plus go-forward savings)

Month 3-4: wireless plan optimization ($310,000, next billing cycle impact)

Month 4-6: POTS replacement deployment ($215,000, phased rollout)

Month 6-9: technology migrations ($150,000, implemented alongside contract renewals)

Key Metrics

Total annual savings identified: $1,200,000

Percentage of telecom spend recovered: 20.5%

Time to identify savings: 3 hours (AI analysis)

Time to implement first savings: 2 weeks (unused service disconnection)

Payback period: immediate (SpendWire is free for customers)

Lessons Learned

Nobody owned telecom holistically across the network — each hospital managed its own

The fastest savings came from disconnecting services that should have been cancelled months or years ago

Wireless plan optimization required no carrier change and no contract renegotiation, just plan adjustments

POTS line costs had tripled in 4 years without anyone noticing because they were buried in large invoices

The network now runs continuous SpendWire monitoring across all 47 locations, catching billing anomalies within one invoice cycle rather than letting them accumulate for years.

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