Amid Market Uncertainty, Georgia Hospitals Shed Jobs

Meanwhile, three hospitals have shut down this year: Calhoun Memorial in southwest Georgia, Stewart-Webster Hospital in central Georgia, and Charlton Memorial Hospital in southeast Georgia.

Phoebe Putney CEO Joel Wernick said a number of factors are affecting his bottom line, including Georgia’s slow economic recovery, federal sequestration, and continued financial uncertainty related to the health reform law.

“Like other hospitals and health systems throughout the United States, Phoebe is facing a tidal wave of economic change,” said Wernick. “We’re dealing with an economy and a change in the healthcare industry over which we have limited control.” 

Many health administrators in Georgia are deeply concerned about scheduled federal cutbacks for hospitals that treat the uninsured.  The loss was supposed to coincide with an influx of funds related to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. But Georgia remains one of 25 states that have opted not to expand.

“We’re in a flurry of change right now and everybody’s trying to react to what they feel the marketplace is going to be like in a year or two and not expanding Medicaid certainly doesn’t make it better,” said Kevin Bloye, a vice president with the Georgia Hospital Association.

Nationally, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, health care providers announced more layoffs than any other industry last month — more than 8,000.