University Medical Center tables layoff threat — for now

Despite threatening to send layoff notices to its 2,400 employees in early May over budget concerns, New Orleans-based University Medical Center has tabled the warning for now, according to The Times-Picayune.

In early March, UMC's operator, New Orleans-based LCMC Health, penned a letter to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards threatening to walk away from the public-private management agreement to run the hospital if it did not receive sufficient funding from the state.

If Louisiana is unable to fulfill its part of the public-private contract — which includes providing funding — the partnership with LCMC Health will end, leaving UMC under state control, which would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars and would jeopardize the jobs of the medical center's 2,400 employees.

Even though hospital officials are unhappy with the funds designated for UMC in the most recent version of the state budget, which was passed by the House in late April, they have yet to send job termination notices.

However, this does not mean these notices couldn't go out in the next several weeks, The Times-Picayune noted.

For now, hospital leaders are holding off because they are encouraged that the Louisiana Legislature will designate additional money to healthcare. The Senate still has to vote on the budget and residents have been encouraged by various state hospitals to contact their representatives.

As the current version of the budget stands, Louisiana is slated to lose $1.8 billion in state and federal healthcare dollars after July 1. UMC is only slated to receive about 56 percent of the funding the hospital says it needs to remain fully operational.

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