Integris Medical Network Announces Company-Wide Job Cuts

Thursday, March 31st 2016, 7:14 pm

By: News 9

The Integris Medical Network is set to begin a round of job and benefit cuts.

The decision was made after the Oklahoma Health Care Authority announced its plan Tuesday to reduce the amount it reimburses to hospitals and physicians for treating patients on Medicaid by 25 percent.

3/29/2016 Related Story: Oklahoma Medicaid Agency Announces 25 Percent Provider Cuts

News 9 obtained an email, sent out to company employees, notifying them of “enterprise-wide” cuts. The email stated that position cuts will be made across all levels of the organization.

While many jobs will be cut through attrition, others will be lost as a general reduction of workforce, the email read. All cuts are said to be completed by June 30.

In addition to the state budget crisis, the company also identified problems with the Affordable Care Act, specifically the state’s refusal to accept additional federal funding to increase the number of insured Oklahomans.

A company spokesperson released the following statement regarding the situation:

“Like many other industries, these are challenging times for health care organizations in Oklahoma, both in terms of the state’s struggling economy and its projected $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Unfortunately, we are also facing many other challenges resulting from the Affordable Care Act including increased individual deductibles which many people cannot pay, reduced reimbursements and Oklahoma’s decision to not accept additional federal funding to increase the number of insured Oklahomans. With recent news of a potential 25% reduction of provider fees within the state Medicaid program beginning June 1, we are having to take a hard look at our operational expenses.

These circumstances are out of our control but do require us to take reasonable steps to ensure we continue to provide quality care and services, even in this economic downturn.

Though we have tried hard to focus our cost reduction efforts on expenses and not staff, this round of reductions will affect some employee benefits and some positions across all levels of the organization.

Many of these positions will be eliminated through attrition as people retire or leave INTEGRIS, however some will be affected as part of a reduction-in-force. We are trying very hard to limit those reductions and will have them completed by June 30, 2016.

Decisions like this are never easy, especially when the number of patients INTEGRIS serves is higher than ever. While any reductions-in-force will impact only a very few of our 9,800 person workforce, the fact such decisions must be made at all is painful.”