On Tuesday, Children's Hospital Oakland announced it will lay off 84 full-time employees, prompting criticism from Alameda County officials for announcing such a major decision so suddenly, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The layoffs and the planned reduction of outpatient services are expected to save $10 million annually. The changes to outpatient services include eliminating the hospital's rheumatology program and scaling back its audiology program and an initiative for obese children.
Medi-Cal Issues
Frank Tiedemann, the hospital's president and CEO, said the primary motivation for the layoffs and changes to outpatient services is a 10% cut to Medi-Cal reimbursements that was scheduled to begin on July 1. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program (Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/3).
Tiedemann said the hospital is hit with a greater share of the cost of providing services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries each year because of inadequate reimbursements. He said, "If the only thing that we cared about was money, we would have canceled the Medi-Cal contract. We are making some minor adjustments" (Hogarth, East Bay Business Times, 7/1).
Implications
Anthony Iton, head of the county public health department, said the service reductions could affect care for children enrolled in Medi-Cal, adding that the sudden announcement of the changes was "inappropriate."
Doctors at the hospital also voiced concerns that some patients would lose access to care (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/3).
Tiedemann said that about 67% of the hospital's patients are covered by Medi-Cal (AP/Stockton Record, 7/2).