SPRINGFIELD – After more than a year of monthly operating losses, Baystate Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice (BVNAH) is announcing steps to stabilize its finances and ensure its ability to continue to fulfill its mission.
BVNAH is eliminating the positions of nine employees and reducing the hours of four others. It is also taking steps to ensure the most efficient utilization of overtime and regular work hours, and giving some employees the option of voluntarily reducing their hours worked.
“We have done everything possible to increase efficiency and stabilize our finances over the past year, but the continuing reimbursement cuts and other changes in payment that we and other home-health agencies are facing have limited our ability to stop these financial losses,” said Maura McQueeney, president of BVNAH. “We view any reduction in our workforce as a last resort, and we’ll do all we can to place those affected into new positions within Baystate Health.”
The employees whose positions are being eliminated will get access to job-placement and support services and receive severance packages appropriate to their eligibility and length of service at BVNAH.
Home health agencies across Massachusetts and the nation have faced increasing financial challenges, as tougher administrative requirements of payers have increased denials of payment while reimbursements have not kept up with agencies’ costs.
The nine position eliminations will reduce the overall BVNAH workforce to 279 employees.
