Squeezed budgets and regulatory uncertainty are pushing a number of hospitals across the country to cut back on staff.
One of the largest reductions in staff is taking place at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, which last week announced plans to offer buyouts to 1,600 employees. The reason for the trouble: flat reimbursement and rising operating costs.
Related: Brigham and Women’s offers voluntary buyouts to 1,600 employees to avoid layoffs
And it's a problem felt across the country, STAT reports. Financial woes have already led Catholic Health Initiatives to slash 900 positions through layoffs and buyouts, STAT reports, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Care Center to cut 1,000 jobs.
In recent weeks layoffs have been announced at organizations in New York City, California, Minnesota and Rhode Island:
- Organizational restructuring” at NYC Health + Hospitals could lead to the loss of more than 600 jobs across the system's 11 acute care facilities, according to a report from the New York Post.
- Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis will cut 130 positions, or 2% of its full time staff, according to the STAT article.
- Riverside Community Hospital in California will layoff 42 employees amid a $400 million expansion, the Press-Enterprise reports. In addition to the job cuts, Riverside will close its cardiac rehab center and its ambulatory services unit.
- Care New England Health System, the second largest health system in Rhode Island, which recently announced a merger with Partners HealthCare, revealed that it will begin a “wide array” of layoffs at its flagship hospital, Women and Infants Hospital, reports the the Providence Journal. Though leaders at the facility would not confirm how many layoffs were planned, they said that both clinical and non-clinical positions would be affected.
While the reasons behind the layoffs vary— for example, MD Anderson officials blame their financial troubles on the cost of the organization's electronic health record system—there are some commonalities, such as the uncertain future of the Affordable Care Act, according to the article.
Related: MD Anderson layoffs highlight EHR finance woes
Many healthcare organizations worry they will also have to eliminate jobs if lawmakers repeal the ACA, which could lead to millions losing their health insurance and fewer patients able to pay their bills. A recent report by the Urban Institute projected that even a partial repeal of the health reform law would increase the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals and healthcare systems provide to the uninsured at a free or reduced rate by $1.1 trillion over a 10-year period.
Related: Hospitals postpone projects, hiring amid AHCA uncertainty
Hospitals have, thus far, been able to “make cuts using a scalpel instead of an ax,” John Palmer, a spokesman for the Ohio Hospital Association, told STAT. “But they’re running out of options.”