nurses are laid off, salaries decreased and vacant positions eliminated thanks to obamacare
read here: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/m...tory?track=rss
nurses are laid off, salaries decreased and vacant positions eliminated thanks to obamacare
read here: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/m...tory?track=rss
This doesn't surprise me in the slightest - I read the entire healthcare reform bill before deciding how I would vote and saw all of this in the text of the bill. Plus as the law roll's out I have seen nothing the improves access or lowers the cost of healthcare - in fact more patients than ever are being turned away and being forced to change doctors. Also Physicians and caregiver's are being forced to take and additional 20% cut in reimbursements. The average fee a physician collects right now to see a patient covered by Medi/Medi is $8.00 so that will go down to less than $7.00. Is it any wonder that many Physicians would rather retire and close their doors than work for free?
Hppy
Just in case the link 'ages out':
Blue Mountain Health System announced Tuesday it has laid off 16 workers and reduced the hours of seven others due in part to Obamacare.
In addition, the health system — which includes Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital and The Summit Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lehighton, and Palmerton Hospital in Palmerton — has eliminated 13 vacant positions, the company announced in a news release. Senior management and department directors will have their salaries reduced by 5 to 7 percent.
"A major contributing factor for the reduction in the workforce is due to the Affordable Care Act," the company said in the release.
The release noted that to receive a $3 million federal subsidy, the health system would have to spend $5 million on information-technology and electronic-records mandates under Obamacare. "That $2 million difference hit the health system's bottom line this past fiscal year," the release said.
A reduction in Medicare reimbursements this year and a decrease in admissions also have affected the system's finances, along with an increase in employee health insurance expenses, the release noted.
"We always need to look at our staffing levels in response to our patient volume," President and CEO Andrew E. Harris said in the release. "This was not an easy decision, but we need to respond to our decreased patient volume as well as the financial constraints that many other hospitals are also experiencing."
Fifteen of the laid-off workers are full time, the release said. It did not say what positions those workers held or where they worked. In addition to its three facilities, Blue Mountain Health System also runs numerous outpatient service centers.
thanks for reposting cougarnurse, this article would be very helpful for other nurses in this forum as well..
i just hope none of them were included with those who got laid off..
I think it's too easy to blame "Obamacare" for lay-offs. We all know it's more complex than that. While the newly restructured healthcare program isn't perfect, it's a step towards gaining control over a very badly run system which has been on a collision course with disaster for many years. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better but we will survive. A word of advice AND caution to anyone reading. Do your part and set positive a example for others by being resourceful and living in a health conscious way. Take responsibility for your own wellness. In this way, we might start a trend toward better living and not be among the countless over-consumers of health care services.
R
I do disagree with you about Obama Care because I have seen first hand how it's already effecting the delivery of care to medically underserved developmentally disabled community - it really does amount to death panels.
Still I like your closing statement about being resourceful and living in a healthful manner.
Peace and Namaste
Hppy
Death panels exist in critical care, where I work, too, and I don't struggle with it because there is so much futile care given to the already dead. I don't think my colleagues struggle with it either, but so often the families do and this is where we focus our attention. We jokingly call ourselves "death nurses" because we "pre-wake" the patients when they die-hospitality cart and all. Then we post the patient and send them to the funeral home where they get "waked" again. Most people have at least three funerals now before they get interred.
R
Ricu, must agree Preventative Care applies to both healthcare workers & the general public.
Cary James Barrett, RN, BSN
In the early days of the third Reich be fore he thunk up the "Final Solution" Hitler experimented on methods of killing people by targeting those in society that he considered to be "useless Eaters" these were mostly developmentally disabled, elderly and wounded war veterans and people who had suffered injuries which rendered them unable to work. Thousands of WWI vets were killed through a program of starvation simply because they could not contribute in a way that Hitler saw as "Useful". Who will be next in our society - Are we not committed to doing no harm? I see nothing compassionate about pushing mass quantities of Morphine into a person who is not in pain just to hasten their death . I have sat and held the hands of several people and watched the panic in their eyes as their respiratory drive shuts down.
The whole purpose of Healthcare reform was to provide needed healthcare services to the medically underserved. Now those same underserved are being denied medically necessary medications in favor of cost reduction. Doctors and hospitals are facing 20 to 30% cuts in reimbursement and healthcare facilities are going paperless and digital which means our healthcare records will no longer be confidential as anyone with the password can access our medical records at the touch of a button. This is not the America my family members fought and died for.
The average wait time for medical care in the countries who have socialized medicine is 18 to 24 months. Mostly this happens because it's cheaper to let people die while they are waiting than treat them for their illness. This is not what I became a nurse to do. In America prior to healthcare reform no-one was denied healthcare based on their ability to pay.
I don't know the answer but will be going back to the days when children born with disabilities were routinely allowed to starve under "Do Not Feed" orders. I certainly hope not.
Hppy