Less than two years after a wave of administrative layoffs, Mass General Brigham began a new round of job cuts last week that affect clinical and operational programs, according to media reports.
A spokesperson at the health system confirmed the workforce reductions began last week but did not specify the number or types of roles impacted. The Boston Globe reported the layoffs on Thursday.
The latest round of layoffs is focused on “redesign[ing] clinical and operational models,” the Boston Business Journal reported, citing a Sept. 17 email sent by three MGB executives to physician leaders and people managers.
“We must eliminate programs and activities that do not fully align with our strategy and priorities, even those we have had for many years. Administrative savings alone will not be enough,” said the email signed by Dr. Michael Brown, president of the academic medical center, CFO Niyum Gandhi and COO Dr. Ron Walls, the Boston Business Journal reported.
In early 2025, the academic, integrated nonprofit system initiated two waves of administrative layoffs impacting nonclinical employees to close a $250 million two-year budget gap. The Boston Globe, citing unnamed sources, reported last year that roughly 1,500 positions out of the system’s 82,000 were affected.
An annual financial report released shortly after said the “strategic reorganization of management and administrative positions” is expected to save more than $200 million per year.
"While previous actions helped improve our financial position, our operating performance still requires broader structural changes. To strengthen our long-term sustainability, we must improve coordination across our hospitals and care settings, accelerating our transition to a more integrated model of care," a MGB spokesperson said in a statement provided to Fierce Healthcare.
"These are difficult but necessary decisions to ensure we can continue providing exceptional care for patients, advancing research and education, and investing in the people and programs that are central to our mission. This work will be guided by our clinicians who are closest to patient care. By taking these steps now, we are strengthening Mass General Brigham for the future and ensuring we can continue to serve our patients and communities for generations to come," the spokesperson said.
MGB, Massachusetts’ largest private employer and the state’s largest healthcare system, has more than 80,000 workers and operates 17 hospitals, including specialty hospitals like McLean Hospital and Mass Eye & Ear, as well as other community and outpatient sites. It also runs a health plan with over 400,000 members and sees 1.9 million unique patients annually.
For the 2025 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025, the organization reported $22.8 billion in total operating revenue, an 11% year-over-year increase that included a nearly 8% bump in net patient service revenue, Editor Dave Muoio reported. Its total operating expenses hit $22.7 billion, a 10.9% year-over-year increase, and included a $53 million one-time hit related to the layoffs that the company expects will save more than $240 million per year in the long run.
Health system executives are focused on improving the organization's operating margin. MGB reported a $59.2 million operating gain (0.3% operating margin) for the 2025 fiscal year, up slightly from the prior year.
Halfway through its current fiscal year, MGB has reported a $65 million operating loss (-0.5% operating margin).
The Boston Business Journal reported that the system is more than $300 million behind budget this fiscal year. The executives are targeting an operating margin of 1.5% by fiscal year 2028, which, they said, “is the minimum necessary to support continued investment in patient care, our workforce, research, education, facilities, technology and major capital projects such as the future Brigham tower," according to the Sept. 17 email.
Division and department heads have been told to cut their budgets, the Boston Globe reported.
A MGB spokesperson told the Globe that the health system is reviewing how and where services are delivered across the system. "That may include consolidating, redesigning, relocating, or, in some cases, discontinuing programs," the spokesperson told the media outlet.
The health system has been conducting a broader multiyear restructuring of the clinical and academic teams at its two flagship hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Unveiled in 2024, the effort will see the hospitals’ teams come together as singular departments.
The cuts come as MGB is investing $400 million over four years to upgrade and expand its in-house cancer capabilities and launch its Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. That massive investment comes as the health system is winding down its long-term partnership with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which will end in the fall of 2028.
The health system is also in the middle of ongoing contract negotiations with the nurses union at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Nearly 4,000 nurses at the hospital represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association have pushed for cost-of-living adjustments along with 5% annual salary increases until they reach two decades of service. In July, those unionized nurses and another 450 home care clinicians launched a strike after months of bargaining failed to yield a contract deal.
The nurses' union threatened to go on strike again, scheduling a walkout for Oct. 14. That strike was postponed after a bargaining session where the hospital made its "last, best and final offer" that did not include across-the-board pay increases, the Globe reported.
Union members are finishing a vote today on whether to accept the hospital's offer.