Community Health Systems Inc., the Tennessee-based hospital operator that owns Rockwood Health System in Spokane, released a statement Monday saying it is considering selling its entire business. 

The struggling hospital giant confirmed in the release that it’s exploring strategic options with its financial sponsors but the talks are preliminary and might not lead to a transaction.

The company went on to say that there is no timetable for the review, and it “does not expect to make further public comment regarding these matters while the exploration process takes place.”

Since summer of 2015, the hospital system has seen both its earnings and stock price plunge, and it has shed hospitals in an effort to improve operating margins and reduce debt. 

Currently, CHS has letters of intent to sell at least 12 hospitals, some of which are part of 61 hospitals it acquired for $3.9 billion in 2014, as part of Health Management Associates Inc. 

In August, company CFO Larry Cash said that the sale of those hospitals was expected to yield net proceeds of $850 million. 

Earlier in the summer, CHS raised $1.2 billion by spinning off 38 rural hospitals into a separate public company, Quorum Health Corp. It also sold its portion of a joint venture in four Las Vegas hospitals for about $445 million.

However, the recent divestitures appear to have had no impact on the company’s depressed stock price, which closed at $12.27 on Friday, Sept. 16, after trading at about $60 a year ago. 

As the Journal reported last month, CHS posted a $1.43 billion second-quarter loss, compared with net income of $111 million for the same period last year. The company attributed the loss to a noncash write-down of goodwill on the sinking value of hospitals it had acquired over the years, including those acquired as part of HMA. 

The company’s low stock price has attracted new investors, among them Tianqiao Chen, a Chinese billionaire who made his initial fortune in online gambling.

This year, Chen has accumulated 11.4 million shares of CHS stock, making him the company’s largest shareholder. Although his investment, through affiliate Shanda Media, was labeled as passive in regulatory filings, activist investors have been making noise in the health care sector this year, reports indicate. 

CHS is one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the nation. Through its subsidiaries, the company now owns, leases, or operates 159 affiliated hospitals in 22 states with a total of nearly 27,000 licensed beds.