Hospitals across Nebraska are looking to reduce costs to respond to cuts
in Medicare reimbursement rates, a hospital group said Tuesday after
the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha announced job cuts.
Thirty-eight employees at the Nebraska Medical Center will lose their jobs by the end of the year, and 100 open positions will remain unfilled, med center officials announced Tuesday.
No nursing positions will be eliminated, officials said, and patient care will not be affected.
Among the positions slated for elimination are one vice president and three other directors. One of those people was already planning to leave for another job, said Glenn Fosdick, the med center's president and CEO.
Fosdick said he didn't want to identify all of the positions affected until everyone had been notified. “The bottom line,” he said, “is we're not going to compromise our patient care.”
The hospital has about 5,200 employees.
Reimbursement rates for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people age 65 or older, have been targeted under federal health care reform. It's possible that the rates will be further reduced Jan. 1 when automatic spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect. Couple that with ongoing federal deficit-reduction discussions, and hospital officials recognize the need to look hard at controlling costs, said Adrian Sanchez, a spokesman for the Nebraska Hospital Association.
“Hospitals and health care providers typically operate on such thin margins,” he said. “Adjustments to Medicare reimbursement payments will have a significant impact to their bottom line.”
But job cuts, Sanchez said, are “a last resort.”
Fosdick said he had not made job cuts “of any significance” at the med center in more than 10 years. “We could have done it without telling anybody, but we believe in being transparent with our employees,” he said.
A few staff members will see their hours reduced, hospital spokesman Paul Baltes said. People affected will be notified over the next week to 10 days, and administrators will try to place them in spots within the system and “among partner organizations.”
“We're committed to helping them,” Fosdick said.
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121030/LIVEWELL01/121039974/1685
Thirty-eight employees at the Nebraska Medical Center will lose their jobs by the end of the year, and 100 open positions will remain unfilled, med center officials announced Tuesday.
No nursing positions will be eliminated, officials said, and patient care will not be affected.
Among the positions slated for elimination are one vice president and three other directors. One of those people was already planning to leave for another job, said Glenn Fosdick, the med center's president and CEO.
Fosdick said he didn't want to identify all of the positions affected until everyone had been notified. “The bottom line,” he said, “is we're not going to compromise our patient care.”
The hospital has about 5,200 employees.
Reimbursement rates for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people age 65 or older, have been targeted under federal health care reform. It's possible that the rates will be further reduced Jan. 1 when automatic spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect. Couple that with ongoing federal deficit-reduction discussions, and hospital officials recognize the need to look hard at controlling costs, said Adrian Sanchez, a spokesman for the Nebraska Hospital Association.
“Hospitals and health care providers typically operate on such thin margins,” he said. “Adjustments to Medicare reimbursement payments will have a significant impact to their bottom line.”
But job cuts, Sanchez said, are “a last resort.”
Fosdick said he had not made job cuts “of any significance” at the med center in more than 10 years. “We could have done it without telling anybody, but we believe in being transparent with our employees,” he said.
A few staff members will see their hours reduced, hospital spokesman Paul Baltes said. People affected will be notified over the next week to 10 days, and administrators will try to place them in spots within the system and “among partner organizations.”
“We're committed to helping them,” Fosdick said.
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121030/LIVEWELL01/121039974/1685
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