Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will lay off 63 employees early this year and close its billing department, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
The hospital notified Florida officials that it will lay off 31 workers on or within two weeks of Jan. 21, and another 32 in the following months, the newspaper reports, citing a letter to the state's Department of Economic Opportunity.
The hospital plans to close its revenue department in May, according to the Sun-Sentinel. The layoffs affect financial services analyst, manager and coordinator positions, as well as some employees who handle patient accounts.
News about the layoffs and billing department closure come nearly one year after Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, the parent company of Holy Cross, announced immediate and long-term plans to restructure operations.
The health system's efforts — which include creation of three centralized patient billing service centers — will affect nearly 1,700 employees at Trinity Health's 94 hospitals and more than 100 care sites.
"Trinity Health announced in February 2019 our decision to consolidate patient business service centers to strengthen billing operations and provide patients with a more transparent and simplified billing experience," a statement from the health system says. "By the time the transition is complete across the system, Trinity Health will have standardized patient accounting and related information systems and consolidated hospital patient billing offices into three patient service centers."
"We deeply value the work and dedication of our service center teams, and we have worked closely with them throughout the consolidation process. Consistent with our colleague transition practices, we are offering affected colleagues the opportunity to relocate to one of the new patient business service centers, seek other positions locally or elsewhere in Trinity Health, or accept a severance package and outplacement services that provide support in a manner consistent with our Catholic identity and our system's core values," Trinity Health added.
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