Lake Forest Area Health Center Lays Off 175 Employees

LAKE FOREST, CA — More patients and changes in healthcare insurance have are underlying reasons behind UC Irvine Health's large layoff. After recently eliminating 80 positions at UCI Health, the UC Irvine Health continued thinning out their administrative staff by laying off 175 employees.

The reasons cited include higher costs and fewer reimbursements from Medicaid and private insurers, a UCI Health spokesman said.

"UCI Health earlier eliminated about 80 positions through attrition or by not filling vacant positions," John Murry, spokesman for UCI Health said. "It's part of a larger, strategic plan to improve efficiency, cut some costs, renegotiate contracts to get some lower costs, things like that."

Since healthcare reform, "there have been some challenges in the healthcare market," Murray said. "Reimbursements are somewhat flat, and there's an increasing demand on academic centers across the country.

"Academic medical centers like UCLA, NYU, Stanford, all these systems have to support an academic enterprise, a school of medicine, as well as research, so our costs are higher and we have to become more efficient," he said.

Employees were being informed today, with the process expected to continue through Wednesday or Thursday, Murray said.

"No faculty members, no doctors, very few nurses" are being laid off, Murray said. "We've tried to structure this to not remove any bedside care providers."

The health organization has set up some new outpatient offices and specialty care centers, which are expected to provide more revenue in the future and help cut costs, Murray said.

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