Near the conclusion of his team’s third-quarter investor conference call Wednesday, Community Health Systems Chairman and CEO Wayne Smith said something interesting about the Presidential election and the impact it might have on the health care industry, an opinion not often voiced among the local cadre of hospital owners.

Asked by an analyst — mostly in jest — whom Smith and company CFO Larry Cash would vote for, Cash said he wouldn’t be voting on Tuesday because … drum roll … he’d already voted early.

But Smith — who also has voted early — added something more compelling. Here it is verbatim:

“I’ll tell you this. Even though I went to Auburn, I certainly wouldn’t make a  prediction on the election. It’s so close. But if it’s a Romney win, you’re going to test our ability to continue productivity and develop new strategies around reductions in cost and how we can better deliver our care at a lesser cost. If President Obama is re-elected, then we’ll continue to work on the revenue side.The industry strategy will change as soon as we know who’s elected.”