A large group practice at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center informed its physicians today that it's ending its contribution to their retirement fund, which had been equivalent to roughly 10% of their salaries, on April 1.

In a letter to the doctors, Dr. Alexa Kimball, president and CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC, said that dire predictions for the economic future convinced the board it needed to act now in advance of what could come.