Borrego Health is making changes to its administrative and clinical teams and laying off 218 employees, the Borrego Springs, Calif.-based federally qualified health center announced May 25.
Borrego Health is reducing the size of its administrative team, closing its consolidated call center, reducing clinical staffing and creating a centralized leadership team. The changes will help the organization navigate financial and legal challenges, Borrego Health CEO Edgar Bulloch, MD, said.
"Without question, the past 18 months have been significantly challenging for Borrego Health," Dr. Bulloch said. "Indeed our patients in Riverside and San Diego counties need Borrego Health. That's why we're doing everything we can to overcome our challenges, even though it means making difficult decisions regarding the size of our workforce and our operational structure."
The organization said the layoffs would occur July 24. Affected employees include nurses, phlebotomists, dental staff members and members of the management team.
The cutbacks come less than two years after Borrego Health and a medical billing company were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into potential Medicare fraud, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.