Mass General Brigham Cuts Costs Hoping To Save $500 Million
BOSTON (CBS) - The largest health care network in Massachusetts is cutting costs, hoping to save $500 million after suffering major revenue losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mass General Brigham, formally known as Partners HealthCare, said it's lost $800 million in patient revenue and could lose $2 billion through the end of the calendar year, mainly because elective surgeries, procedures and appointments were postponed for months during the state's stay at home order.
There will not be layoffs, but executive and senior leadership compensation will be cut from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. For executives, it's a 25 percent cut. For various members of senior leadership, it will be 5 to 20 percent. Pay increases will be suspended, along with retirement benefits for all employees making more than $26.50 an hour.
"It's extremely disappointing," said Brigham and Women's nurse Kelly Morgan, the vice chair of MNA bargaining unit committee. "They really need to take a step back and look at their employees throughout the system and say we're so lucky to have what we have with our employees and maybe now is not the right time to freeze their pay."
"We are committed to minimizing the financial impact of the pandemic on our 78,000 employees and remain grateful for the extraordinary work they do," a Mass General Brigham spokesperson said in a statement.
"If they really do appreciate all the hard work that everybody does, this is a really poor, poor way of showing it," Morgan said.