New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health will lay off 107 employees in January when it shuts down its Medicaid long-term care plan, North Shore-LIJ Health Plan.
In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review, Northwell said it is shutting down the health plan, which currently covers about 6,000 members across six counties, to focus on its "core business." The system will help those enrolled in the long-term care plan transition to other plans during the wind-down process.
According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed Oct. 12, Northwell will lay off 107 employees when it shuts down the health plan. The employees will be laid off around Jan. 5, 2018.
Northwell's insurance unit has suffered significant financial losses. The system ended the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 with an operating loss of $36.2 million, compared to an operating gain of $29.4 million in the same quarter of fiscal year 2016. The loss was largely attributable to a $22.7 million loss by its health insurance company CareConnect and a $3.8 million loss by North Shore-LIJ Health Plan. In August, Northwell announced it will wind down CareConnect over the next year.
Regarding the layoffs, Scott Becker, publisher of Becker's Hospital Review, said "Unfortunately, layoffs are again becoming commonplace. All layoffs are very difficult. When a system as large as Northwell tries to limit their layoffs to this amount, it's a sign of trying to be very careful with the human cost associated with layoffs. It's a very well led, compassionate system."
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