Aspen Valley Hospital will give its employees an average pay increase of 2.4 percent this month, while the Vail Valley Medical Center laid off 22 people less than two weeks ago.
The difference in fortunes between the two facilities illustrates the challenges in an industry that is grappling not only with the effects of a recession, but looming changes posed by national health-care reforms.
In Vail, hospital administrators cited a drop in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements coupled with an increase in the number of patients in those two programs for the need to cut staff. In addition, the medical center has seen a 27 percent drop in births this year, another revenue source, according to a report in The Vail Daily. The layoffs and other moves trimmed $4.2 million from the Vail facility’s budget.
In Aspen, it’s a different story on several fronts, and not just because births are up so far this year.
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