St. Charles Layoffs, Budget Squeeze, Hiring Freeze

St. Charles Health System laid off three workers last week and has imposed a hiring freeze as it struggles to deal with a $9 million budget shortfall, fueled by rising Oregon Health Plan patient counts and falling state reimbursements, a hospital official said Monday.

“Last week, we laid off three people as one of the many steps the organization is taking to adjust to the current economic climate,” said spokeswoman Lisa Goodman in an e-mail to NewsChannel 21, refuting claims of “mass layoffs” at the facility.

Still, she painted a worrisome fiscal picture.

“To date, St. Charles Health System is behind budget for the year by about $9 million,” Goodman wrote.

“The shortfall is mostly due to increases in the number of patients on the Oregon Health Plan who are seeking our services and decreases in the reimbursements we receive from the state for treating those patients,” she explained.

“We are seeing more and more patients on medicaid programs and more and more patients who cant afford to pay for their care,” St Charles-Bend CEO Jay Henry said. “I hope we get to a place where our economy stabilizes, but until that point, we need to adjust the organization to meet the needs of the changing landscape.”

But the Bend-based health system, Central Oregon’s largest employer, is far from alone in facing such a squeeze, Goodman added.

“It is a problem most health systems across the country are facing,” she said, noting that Portland-based Providence Health & Services last week announced plans to eliminate 85 positions through attrition and layoffs, also planning to cut $250 million in spending over the next three years.

Nearly one-third of those reductions will come through layoffs. The rest will come through attrition and positions that will remain unfilled.

A Providence official said it expects less money in reimbursements as government reform programs attempt to cover more patients.

As for St. Charles, Goodman said, “Along with the reduction of these positions, we have a strategic hiring freeze in place and have plans to bring in a health care consultant in August to assess staffing needs and provide management and productivity evaluations.”