ANN ARBOR, MI — A hospital system that serves Washtenaw County and many other Michigan communities was hit by layoffs, but the exact number of billing and coding jobs lost is unknown, as of Thursday, Jan. 22.
Livonia-based Trinity Health will cut 10.5% of jobs within its revenue cycle department, a spokesperson for the system confirmed with MLive on Tuesday, Jan. 13. A total number of eliminated jobs was not provided to MLive upon request.
Trinity Health spokesperson Bobby Maldonado told The Ann Arbor News/MLive on Thursday he is “unable to provide additional detail” on the number of Trinity Health Ann Arbor system employees impacted by the layoffs.
But he said that number was not enough to trigger a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN).
The Michigan WARN Act requires employers to provide advanced notice of plant closures and mass layoffs, under certain circumstances. In the case of mass layoffs, a WARN notice is required if it involves at least 500 full-time employees or at least 50 full-time employees if they amount to 33% or more of the business’s workforce.
Trinity Health officials previously released a prepared statement about the layoffs.
“We won’t be commenting any further,” Maldonado said.
In the statement, Trinity Health officials said several factors have caused significant challenges for the health care industry, including low reimbursement rates that don’t cover the cost of care, critical staffing shortages and the rising cost of care for underinsured and uninsured patients.
Those challenges have caused the system to consider ways to reduce costs while providing high-quality care for patients. One such cost-saving avenue is the outsourcing of many non-patient-facing revenue cycle jobs to “an external partner.”
Trinity Health officials did not name the “external partner” or provide any other details about outsourcing the jobs.
“While we are confident this is the right step to protect long-term sustainability of our ministry, we also recognize the real impact on colleagues whose roles are affected,” Trinity Health official said.
“Supporting these colleagues through this transition with care and respect is our priority. We are grateful for the contributions each colleague has made to our mission.”
Revenue cycle jobs in health care typically include medical coding and billing positions. Trinity didn’t specify which positions were cut or how many of each job type.
Trinity Health employs about 133,000 people across 25 states including Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and New Jersey, according to its website.
In Washtenaw County, Trinity Health operates a hospital campus in Superior Township, near Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Chelsea Hospital is a joint venture between Trinity Health and University of Michigan Health. Trinity Health also has several additional health care locations in the county.
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