Columbia St. Mary's Hospital of Milwaukee eliminated eight full-time and one part-time position in its human resources department this week and has initiated a temporary hiring freeze for administrative positions.
The hiring freeze will not affect direct patient care, according to hospital spokeswoman Kathy Schmitz.
The job cuts are necessary to reduce costs because Columbia St. Mary's and other health care providers are facing fiscal pressures from lower government Medicare reimbursements and from insurance companies that are negotiating lower rates for health care services, Schmitz said.
The cost of health care in the Milwaukee area is higher than in similar-sized metro areas in the United States. In recent years, local employers have had to deal with rising health insurance costs. Those employers are looking for ways to reduce health insurance costs and trying a variety of strategies.
"We're responding to the fluctuating health care market," Schmitz said. "What's driving the job cuts is the reduction in payments from insurers. We are being paid less (by insurers) for the services that we are billing for."
The nine job cuts are just a tiny fraction of Columbia St. Mary's 6,000 employee staff. However, the decision to eliminate the jobs was not taken lightly, Schmitz said.
"It was not an easy decision," she said. "These employees are tremendous people and would be a valuable asset to any employer."
According to a recent Wisconsin Hospital Association report, Columbia St. Mary's had a $46.9 million profit margin in 2005. Columbia St. Mary's also is spending about $417 million to consolidate its two hospitals on the east side of Milwaukee. Columbia St. Mary's says the consolidation will save it $19 million in operating costs each year.
Even so, Columbia St. Mary's needed to make the job cuts to make sure its financial performance remains healthy so it can continue to provide a high level of care to patients, Schmitz said. Columbia St. Mary's is working on variety of strategies to reduce costs, she said.
"We need to ensure that the revenue we have is maintained to continue to provide the best possible care that we can to our patients," Schmitz said. "We're being very pro-active."
Sorry, the story you tried to comment on is not accepting comments.