MU Health Care leaders said Thursday that this week’s announcement of layoffs and the closure of walk-in clinics at Hy-Vee grocery stores is a response to post-pandemic circumstances and federal law changes. They also consistently sought to frame various cost-cutting maneuvers as ones that will put MU Health more in line with its peers.
MU Health Chief Financial Officer Greg Damron told the University of Missouri’s Board of Curators the system’s goal is $80 million dollars per year in profit -- enough to provide raises and reinvest in buildings and programs. But he said President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill will cost the healthcare system about that much every year.
“As written, that’s equivalent to 4% of our revenue," Damron said. "So it basically works out that the current margin target we have will get wiped out.”
MU Health CEO Ric Ransom framed some of the changes as a correction to programming created as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With the passage of time, a lot of those programs that had served a really important purpose no longer continue to do so. And so the circumstances that led to a lot of those practices have changes and so is our approach to them," Ransom said.
Though MU Health still has some 500 jobs open, 74 people have been laid off and a similar number of open jobs have also been eliminated.
System leaders hope to save more money by giving employees three fewer days off per year and reducing the amount contributed to retirement accounts.
