BLUE HILL, Maine — Blue Hill Memorial Hospital has announced a buyout plan aimed at creating permanent budget reductions and avoiding layoffs, according to a news release from the hospital.
The hospital is calling its initiative a “voluntary separation incentive plan,” under which all employees can apply for the buyouts, but administrators may choose to deny some applications.
BHMH used dire language in describing the need for the buyout program, saying the hospital “must be ready to embrace the changes on our doorsteps or face the consequences of failing to keep pace — which could mean an end to health care delivery as we know it on the peninsula.”
The hospital employs 323 people, whose salaries and benefits amount to nearly $20 million per year, according to president and CEO Greg Roraff. Administrators don’t have a number yet of how many employees they’re looking to buy out or how much money they’re looking to save, Raroff said in a Thursday interview.
The hospital is poised to break even in fiscal year 2012, but that’s not enough, Raroff said.
“Like any business, a break-even really isn’t sustainable,” he said Thursday. “You have to generate a margin to build your balance sheet and make investments.”
But the buyout plan isn’t just about saving money on the operations end, Raroff said. It’s also an effort toward reorganization for when the hospital joins other Eastern Maine Healthcare System facilities in adopting an “accountable care” operation model.
Raroff said accountable care is a shift in how the hospital does business, as well as how it’s paid. It means a focus on, and financial incentives for, patient well-being, rather than on Medicare reimbursements based on the number of visits and procedures conducted at the hospital. It’s part of the plan for savings put forward by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, he said.
“We’re preparing for the future,” Raroff said. “Looking toward the future and how we’ll deliver care.”
The buyout program has launched just one month after the hospital announced the acquisition of two adjacent properties, at 18 and 24 Parker Point Road. The hospital bought the two properties last month for an undisclosed price.
Raroff said the purchases were made to accommodate future growth at the hospital. Even in the midst of buyouts and the spectre of layoffs, he said, a company still must plan for the future.
“We couldn’t maintain state-of-the-art services if we weren’t looking to the future and making capital investments,” he said.
Still, the hospital recognizes that the juxtaposition of buyouts and property grabs may be jarring to residents. They’re hosting a community meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Blue Hill Town Hall to “listen to community concerns and ideas, as well as share the facts.”
They’ll also launch a task force to assist the hospital in developing plans for the BHMH campus, including the new properties.
Watch bangordailynews.com for updates.
Good way to make change. Let’s folks know there must be change and that the organization is willing to invest in keeping it reasonable for longer term employees.
i thought they were a part of EMHC
They are, maybe they want to separate themselves now?
It just makes them look a little better for Steward Healthcare.
I did too with the know it all, self righteous, a## wipe for Obamacare, Dr Eric Steele as their CEO
With Lepage’s help and his acts, I sincerely hope he does not have a heart attack (waiting to happen) when he is visiting rural Maine because soon there will be no one to help him and he will die just like the rest of us because of his actions.
Have you been drinking? … because you are making no sense whatsover…
You are being rude. He cuts Medicaid and has made no real effort to pay the hospitals the 10’s of millions they are owed. Our hospitals are hurting and it is not getting any better. Small hospitals will be closing soon because they are struggling.
Cheer up folks! Its all part of Obama care, not to worry ,,,,,,,,
Sounds more like the Republican plan of I Don’t Care.
Well said michaela1947. Cut salaries, lay off people, and maximize income. Still no profit, close it down. Yup, thats GOP all the way. Say, I thought the new maternity ward was going to save Blue Hill?
“It’s part of the plan for savings put forward by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act,” CEO Greg Roraff said.
The moonbats can’t blame this one on the GOP. I hate it when reality comes home to roost . . .
Oh please. Not that I’m a fan of Obamacare, but seriously – this has been a long time coming – and certainly well before Obama was even heard of.
They have way too big of a physical plant for what they do.
I’ve told my family that even if I’m bleeding out under NO circumstances are they to take me there.
I was born in Blue Hill Hospital and most of my children were born there. It always was just a 25 bed hospital. How in the world this ever evoved to the point where they have over 300 employees is beyond me.
Years ago the hospital board was made up in large part of local people who ran it as a small hospital. Eventually, the well to do, who have made Blue Hill their summer home, got control of the board and it has been expanding the hospitals services ever since, taking it far far away from its earlier mission as a 25 bed general hospital to serve the basic needs of the citizens of the peninsula. Those who have been on the board in the last 25 yrs or so, seem to want to turn BHMH into the UCLA medical center or some such, something they could brag about a lot.
Speaking of bragging rights, the large numbers of employees the hospital has had, in recent years, has been a significant bragging point for many people connected with the hospital. They have long bragged on being the largest employer on the peninsula and have disdained cutting back on the excess help.
My father died in the hospital several years back. One day, after he had been admitted to the hospital, there were only two or three other patients in rooms at that time. When his lunch tray was brought in, three people delivered it. One person carried the tray and the other two must have been “bodyguards” as that was the best explanation my son and I could figure out. it seemed patently ridiculous that three people were needed to deliver lunch to only about 3 inpatients in the hospital on that day!
It is high time to lay off the vast excess of workers they have and get back to the mission of being the place that provides BASIC healthcare to local citizens. Patients needing specialists can be recommended to go to other larger hospitals offering those kinds of services, something BHMH did all the years I was growing up in the area.
Times are changed and the hospital needs to change with them.
So, the hospital should have people on call at home waiting for babies like yours to come along, just in case? You know, “Hey, I’m in labor now, can you page the doctor, the nurse, the several other people — I’m coming in now, I think?” Keep all these people part-time, waiting by the phone? I’m sure that would work out well. Or else you could drive to Bangor when you’re in labor and hope for the best. Up to you.
It is hard to lose a loved one and it’s easy to blame the hospital. How old was your dad?
I think you hit the nail on the head countryboy8. Every hospital around wants to be a leader in speciality healthcare services. They believe that is where the money is. I always assumed, just as your recall in the past, that small local hospitals were meant to offer an ER along with perhaps other basic services such as hospice and a location for primary care physicians to ply their trade. But the redundancy in specialty services is so out of control that we have hospitals advertising on TV for our business! What the *%$! Redundancy in specialty services is one of the major reasons healthcare costs have skyrocketed. I believe that if we went to a non-profit universal healthcare system this is one way we would save a bundle, get rid of redundant services within a regional area. A non-profit healthcare system wouldn’t need to be in competition with itself. Imagine, luring patients into an overpriced healthcare facility to make money, and doing so at the expense of your neighbors facility! Ridiculous, and in the end this costs all of us a great deal of money.
” The hospital bought the two properties last month for an undisclosed price.”
The two properties which were bought were listed at over half a million each. They are both buildings which have historical value and will probably be leveled to make a new dirt parking lot like the dirt parking lot they have now. Seems to me the million dollars would’ve been better spent on something else, especially if they’re having financial problems. I walk my dog through the parking lot all the time and it’s never full. If the intention of buying the properties was to create more parking, they DON’T NEED IT. If the intention was to utilize the buildings as office space, they could’ve saved their money and built new buildings where the half empty dirt parking lot exists. I’m not saying that this hospital doesn’t serve a valuable purpose on the peninsula, but with EMMC and St. Josephs less than an hour away, and MCMH in Ellsworth less than a half hour away why are they trying to be like a “big city hospital”? It’s probably because the many wealthy summer residents, some of whom own million dollar properties which they only use for a few weeks out of the year desire it. Just my humble opinion.
There are many, many people on the peninsula who work in the trades who make a large part of their income working for “the summer people “. However i have to agree that when your administration buildings occupy more space than the hospital patient care areas… you got a problem. Maybe Willard Romney will fix it … by firing the staff and selling the furnishings to Taiwan !!! On a more serious note…these rural community hospitals have a big challenge keeping up with the recognized standards of care and have to meet strict patient care guidelines in order to be accredited and be able to bill for their services. I’ve lived in several small communities in the USA and there are no finer people anywhere than the Blue Hill/peninsula area. It would be a shame for those fine folks to lose their hospital.
Yes, there sure are “many, many people…who work in the trades who make a large part of their income working for the summer people.”” And I think nearly all of them are self-proclaimed “contractors–” and inept ripoff artists. Hope for their sake that the (legal) Mexican-Americans I’ve seen for years down south don’t ever discover Maine–time and time again I’ve watched five of them build a 3500-square-foot McMansion in 90 days for ten bucks an hour apiece. Want something done right the first time, at a fraction of the price? Call them.
Also, the argument that BHMH has employed people to bolster its bragging rights and stays open largely to serve its summer residents was eye-rollingly telling, and so sad. Sure, it’s only there for the wealthy. God.
My entire family has used BHMH and its doctors for 30+ years and my kids were born there, too–it’s a great little hospital, and the peninsula is darned lucky to have it. Want to whine about it some more? Try going to another hospital–any hospital, really–in Bangor, Portland or points south and see how fast you get treated and whether anyone cares if you’re a number or not.
But,but,but….
I thought profit was a BAD thing in this ‘feelings’ filled new anti-corporate economy.
Haven’t they gone this route before and recently? You would think that they would address their financial issues first before buying up more property. Most of us that are close to BHMH end up having to go straight to Ellsworth Memorial for treatments – they don’t handle much as far as emergency visits. Unless you are there for an x-ray, ultrasound or a check-up, it’s best to take your emergency right on the Ellsworth hospital. They won’t even treat a broken bone!
“Like any business, a break-even really isn’t sustainable”
Wait a minute here! You mean to say that non-profit businesses are actually supposed to make a profit? You mean to say that the taxpayers absorb non-profits’ 100% exemption on property taxes, forego income taxes from non-profits, and fund MaineCare and MediCare – just so you can make a profit.
“You have to generate a margin to build your balance sheet and make investments.” – What investments are you planning to make. If its equipment, you already get subsidized for “funded depreciation” reserves for replacement costs of aging equipment.
It’s nice if hospitals operate so efficiently as to accumulate some resources, but that is not their primary function. Maintaining the status quo of services is more in line.
No wonder health care costs are rising. Who’da thunk it was for profit accumulation.