Brewer, Maine-based Northern Light Health is transferring 1,400 of its employees to Eden Prairie, Minn.-based health services company Optum, the Portland Press Herald reported Jan. 5.
The office-based employees — including those in revenue cycle management, information systems, inpatient care management, analytics, project management and supply chain roles — will keep their jobs, although they will now be employees of Optum rather than Northern Light Health. Their pay and benefits will not be cut, and they will not have to transfer out of Maine.
Tim Dentry, the health system's president and CEO, told the newspaper they were looking to cut costs due to "unsettled" economic forecasts for hospitals. By outsourcing billing and support operations to Optum, the health system expects to save $1 billion over 10 years.
"Nobody was going to save the day for us in healthcare," Mr. Dentry told the Press Herald. "This decision by Northern Light is going to take a huge amount of pressure off of individual entities like [Eastern Maine Medical Center, a hospital parented by the health system]."