Renton's Valley Medical Center announced Tuesday it is laying off 101 employees after federal Medicaid benefits were ended. Elizabeth Nolan, Valley Medical Center's chief communications and philanthropy officer, confirmed the layoffs. The laid-off employees were in the non-clinical, support, leadership and ancillary departments. The hospital does not expect patient care to be impacted by the job cuts.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System eliminated 300 positions amid financial uncertainty on Tuesday. The March 25 terminations were announced to employees in an internal email obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian and represent a 0.5% reduction in UPHS's workforce. According to the email, the "restructuring and consolidation of certain roles" came as part of a plan to help "ensure strong financial footing."
President Trump's new hospital price transparency executive order directs federal agencies to enforce regulations that the president put into effect in his first term. Trump's action reflects a step toward enforcing long-ignored regulations, ensuring patients have access to relevant pricing information to make informed healthcare decisions. Without strict enforcement and meaningful penalties, hospitals will continue to resist transparency in the cost of services provided, preventing a competitive, value-driven healthcare marketplace.
Since the start of the year, Medical Properties Trust shares have jumped more than 50%. That's despite the bankruptcy filing in early January of yet another of its biggest tenants, looming deep cuts to Medicaid funding that are poised to devastate hospitals that predominantly treat elderly and lower-income patients, the saber-rattling rhetoric against MPT of politicians, sell or hold recommendations from 11 out of 12 of the equity analysts, and a credit rating deep in junk territory that ratings agencies have downgraded twice over the past year.
An Indiana hospital seeking to take over its rival won a reprieve when lawmakers watered down a bill that threatened the proposed deal. But now it faces a likely showdown with the state's new governor.