Written
By: Frederick Melo / St. Paul Pioneer Press | Dec
13th 2019 - 7pm.
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ST.
PAUL — HealthPartners will shutter its St. Paul-based home care unit,
eliminating 70 jobs by Jan. 31 — its third round of layoffs in the past six
weeks.
The
decision to close Integrated Home Care on St. Paul’s East Side follows the
Bloomington-based health organization’s announcement in November that it will trim 30 retail pharmacy operations
in Minnesota as a result of competitive pressures, letting go 300 workers.
Another
75 administrative jobs will be lost throughout its metro-wide network of
hospitals and clinics.
The
three rounds of cuts were attributed, in part, to declining federal
reimbursement for Medicare-eligible services, as well as changes in the types
of Medicare plans on the market.
Founded
in 1957 as a cooperative, the nonprofit health care organization operates eight
hospitals, 55 primary care clinics, 22 urgent care locations and numerous
specialty practices in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
“As we
put together our 2020 budget, we had to make difficult decisions to ensure that
our organization would be able to care for and serve people in a financially
sustainable way,” said Ashley Burt, a HealthPartners spokeswoman. “Part of this
was due to a decline in Medicare reimbursement rates and the shift away from
Medicare Cost plans last year.”
SEIU
Healthcare Minnesota, the labor union representing nurses, pharmacists and
dozens of other job titles in the HealthPartners system, said they are still in
negotiation over severance benefits for home care employees based in St. Paul.
“HealthPartners’
decision to close Integrated Home Care comes right on the heels of their
decision to close all their pharmacies,” said SEIU Healthcare Minnesota
executive vice president Phillip Cryan. “This is the opposite of the behavior
we expect from an organization that claims to be committed to promoting
health.”
This
move comes down to a health system putting profits before people, Cryan added.
“Families
all across Minnesota want to move forward on fixing our health care system, not
backwards,” he said.
SEIU is
currently negotiating a labor contract, which expires at the end of January, on
behalf of more than 1,800 HealthPartners workers across 70 job classifications.
“They
are proposing major, major cost shifting in terms of health care costs, for
health care workers,” Cryan said. “If this doesn’t change in the next seven
weeks, it’s pretty likely we’ll see a strike across the whole system in
February. It’s therapists, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners —
everybody.”
Medicare-related
cuts
Citing
a reduction in Medicare revenue, HealthPartners announced last month it will
cut 75 jobs in administrative departments such as information technology across
its network.
HealthPartners
officials noted the federal government has been phasing out “Medicare Cost”
health plans, a type of coverage predominantly offered in rural areas where few
other plans are available from the private market.
As of
Jan. 1 of this year, Medicare Cost plans were eliminated from counties where
two or more Medicare Advantage plans compete.
The
vast majority of impacted counties have
been in Minnesota, according to industry analysts; HealthPartners
had until this year been a major Medicare Cost plan provider.
In St.
Paul, most Medicare recipients access benefits through Original Medicare plans,
which cover hospital insurance, medical insurance and prescription drugs —
known as Medicare Parts A, B and D, respectively — or through Medicare Advantage
plans, which typically bundle the various parts with added services such as
vision, hearing or dental.
30
pharmacies to close, 300 jobs lost
Also in
November, HealthPartners announced it would close its clinic-based network of
retail pharmacies by early 2020. The 30 pharmacies are located within the
HealthPartners, Park Nicollet, Central Minnesota and Stillwater Medical Group
clinics.
About
300 positions will be eliminated, including roughly 100 pharmacists.
In a
statement at the time, Scott Schnuckle, senior vice president of pharmacy and
business development, said “consumer preferences and pharmacy economics have
changed … to favor large-scale organizations able to support extended hours,
drive-through pickup, and other conveniences we’re not able to offer. Like
others preceding us in our market, we’ve made the difficult decision to exit
our retail pharmacy operation.”
The
Park Nicollet, Central Minnesota and Stillwater Medical Group pharmacies will
close Jan. 20. Retail pharmacy locations branded HealthPartners will close
April 1.
HealthPartners
will continue to operate its specialty, infusion and hospital pharmacies, as
well as health plan pharmacy management and medication therapy management
services. The HealthPartners health plan will still cover pharmacy benefits.
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