The layoffs affect management and healthcare professional positions. These include the marketing director, the executive secretary, other secretaries, two medical transcriptionists and a nuclear medicine technician, according to the report.
Bill Patten, CEO of the hospital’s parent, Taos [N.M.] Health Systems, attributed the move to financial struggles due to multiple factors such as a delay in Medicaid reimbursements and a rise in this year’s cost to renew HCH’s malpractice insurance.
Mr. Patten told The Taos News the hospital hoped the critical access designation for the hospital — resulting in a new Medicare payment method — would improve HCH’s financial picture, but that “didn’t happen as quickly as we would have liked.”
Additionally, the hospital ended up behind on salary payments even after setting up a $2 million line of credit with the help of Centinel Bank of Taos, Mr. Patten told the publication.
According to the report, some affected employees have already applied for other HCH positions.
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