Jefferson Health is laying off 171 back-office employees in March
The layoff at Jefferson Health follows the elimination of around 400 jobs in 2023.
Jefferson Health, the Philadelphia region’s largest health system by number of hospitals, is laying off 171 employees in March, the nonprofit said in a state regulatory filing Friday.
The layoffs relate to the outsourcing of back-office jobs as The Inquirer previously reported. Jefferson declined to say what company it hired to provide the back-office support.
Jefferson’s notice to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry said the layoffs will affect people working in billing, insurance preauthorization, and clinical documentation. Most of the employees work remotely, but report to offices in Philadelphia, Fort Washington, Willow Grove, Norristown, East Norriton, Abington, and Cherry Hill, the notice said.
The layoffs include employees at Jefferson Einstein represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union. Jefferson is switching to a new software for clinical and billing operations at the former Einstein Healthcare Network, which it acquired in 2021.
“We are disappointed that management has chosen to eliminate these positions,” a union spokesperson said. “We are awaiting a response from management as to why these highly skilled jobs, all of which are essential to the daily operations of the hospital, are being eliminated.”
Evolving Jefferson
Following a rapid expansion though acquisitions, Jefferson has been tweaking its operations in a bid to make them profitable. It also entered into joint ventures for laboratory services, home care, and mammography to raise money.
Last year, Jefferson centralized some of its patient scheduling and appointment functions. That reorganization reduced the number of managers, but not the overall number of jobs, a Jefferson spokesperson said last summer.
Jefferson had just shy of 5,000 corporate employees on Sept. 30, down from 5,248 on June, 30, 2023, right before it announced a 1% workforce reduction, with most jobs in corporate and administrative functions. Both of those figures are adjusted to account for part-time employees.
In November, Jefferson postponed annual pay raises for more than 42,000 employees in the Philadelphia region from January to July. Jefferson said the move was designed to match annual salary increases to its fiscal year, which starts July 1. But the move will also boost the nonprofit’s bottom line in its first year owning Lehigh Valley Health Network. That deal closed in August.
Jefferson’s operating loss in the three months that ended Sept. 30 was $90.5 million, including Lehigh Valley. The 32-hospital system, which stretches from northeastern Pennsylvania to South Jersey, reported $3.73 billion in revenue, up 10% from $3.39 billion a year ago.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a comment from the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.