Wednesday, November 17, 2004
The health system notified all of its employees late last week.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Forum Health intends to lay off about 53 employees systemwide by Dec. 11 as it addresses decreasing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, and increasing costs.
"It is 1 percent of our overall staff," said John Gonda, Forum Health's director of marketing and public relations.
He stressed that patient care will not be affected.
Forum Health in the Mahoning Valley operates Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, Northside Medical Center and Tod Children's Hospital here, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland and medical parks in Austintown, Boardman (Beeghly) and Bazetta Township (Elm Road). He said the layoffs would be spread over all the facilities.
Together they employ 5,300 people, Gonda explained.
Reasons
"These reductions are a result of decreasing reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid, which are approximately 60 percent of our business," he said. These reimbursement rates have increased 1.33 percent annually.
Meanwhile, Gonda cited increasing costs over the past five years for malpractice insurance (20 percent per year), drugs and pharmaceuticals (15 percent annually) and wages (5.5 percent annually).
"It's a challenging situation," he said.
The layoffs most likely will be completed by Dec. 11, he said. The health system notified all of its employees late last week that the 1 percent reduction would be taking place.
Gonda cited environmental services and medical records as areas where layoffs could occur, but explained that it's to be determined how union contracts will allow employees to bump others from their job positions.
Gonda said he had no specific dollar figure to attach to savings from the furloughs.
"This will not affect the quality of our patient care," he stressed.