A job engine sputters as hospitals cut staff

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/13/hospital-job-cuts/2947929/#!

Health care providers announced more layoffs than any other industry last month — 8,128 — mostly because of reductions by hospitals, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. So far this year, the health care sector has announced 41,085 layoffs, the third-most behind financial and industrial companies.

There are myriad reasons for the cuts, which are affecting administrative staff as well as nurses and doctors:

• Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies are all reducing reimbursement to hospitals. The federal budget cuts known as sequestration have cut Medicare reimbursement by 2%, the American Hospital Association says.

• The health care law has further reduced the Medicare payments to hospitals that provide lower-quality service or have high readmission rates.

• The National Institutes of Health reduced funding to hospitals by 5% as part of sequestration, forcing hospitals to trim research staff.

• The number of inpatient hospital days fell 4% from 2007 to 2011, in part because of the economic downturn, the hospital association says.

• As more Baby Boomers turn 65, their services will be reimbursed at Medicare rates that are lower than those of private payers, putting further pressure on hospital revenue.\

Just wait until the 30-50 million previously under/uninsured pts that Obamacare is going to be dropping onto the system… with high expectations of getting care.. and they encounter a system that is running with what will end up being a “skeleton staff” for the amount of demand for services that is about to come down on the existing staff.

Filed under: General Problems