PHOENIX—Banner Health plans to lay off 334 employees in Arizona in a move that combined with other cost cuts could save the hospital system up to $50 million annually, officials said.
The layoffs represent slightly less than 1 percent of Banner’s overall work force of about 35,000, and the job cuts are a combination of management, administrative and clinical staff.
Banner CEO Peter Fine said Wednesday that the cuts are necessary as the hospital system faces myriad financial pressures, such as the growing ranks of uninsured seeking health care and those with insurance having trouble paying their hospital bills.
The hospital system’s $2 billion investment portfolio—an important financial cushion for the nonprofit system—also has lost about 35 percent of its value over the past year as the financial crisis hammered Wall Street.
The job cuts will be spread across many of Banner’s 11 metro Phoenix hospitals as well as outpatient facilities. Affected employees will be offered assistance finding new positions within Banner Health or jobs with other employers.
The latest round of cost savings followed $60 million in cuts announced last October. Those cuts included delaying the opening of the Ironwood hospital under construction in Queen Creek, delaying the purchase of hospital uniforms, enforcing time-clock procedures and halting executive pay raises.
Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in the country, operates in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.
———
Information from: The Arizona Republic,
