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Misleading reports and resulting “sky-is-falling” rumors have unnecessarily worried our staff and perplexed some members of the community. That’s unfortunate during the stress of the pandemic, because we’re actually working to reduce the worries of our team.
Intermountain Healthcare is not cutting the pay of our physicians, nurses, advanced-practice providers, and other caregivers.
Several steps have been designed and are being implemented to protect the incomes and jobs of our physicians and employees. Our goal is to ensure their financial stability so they can focus on providing care to our patients and communities.
The truth of what’s happening in the new, temporary compensation model we’re using during the pandemic can be summed up in two overall facts.
First, pay for a limited number of Intermountain’s physicians will be affected because our normal patient volumes have dropped — and we’re working with those providers to protect their incomes. Here are supporting details:
Physician compensation is complex, but our plan has a clear and simple outcome. Intermountain has not cut the pay of these affected providers. Their pay is determined by the contracts they signed — but in order to protect them from the pandemic’s otherwise harsh financial impacts, they won’t make less than 85 percent of what they were paid before COVID-19 struck.
Second, protecting the jobs and incomes of all of our caregivers is our main operational goal in the pandemic. Specific details:
Is our plan perfect? We’re sure it isn’t, and we’ll adjust going forward as needed. We’ve never had to do anything like this before. But it’s a responsible move designed to keep people working, keep their paychecks and benefits coming, and free them from worrying about financial matters while they’re working hard to meet the needs of our patients and communities.
Contrast that with what’s happening across the country. Numerous health systems, physician practices, and hospitals have furloughed employees and announced other cuts in staffing and compensation as a result of the pandemic. National projections from the American Academy of Family Physicians, for example, predict that more than 58,000 physician practices and more than 784,000 jobs, including physician jobs, will be lost by June.
In contrast, Intermountain is stable, we’re taking care of our physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other employees, and we’re ready to serve COVID patients and other members of the community.
One compensation issue that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic: Annual pay raises for all eligible employees will be paid starting Friday, April 10. Executive leaders have deferred annual pay increases indefinitely.
Intermountain Healthcare is a valued partner in all the communities we serve. We’re doing all we can to prevent and treat COVID-19, and as the pandemic continues, we’re relentlessly focused on the health and the economic stability of our team.
Gail Miller is owner and chair of the Larry H. Miller Group and serves as the chair of Intermountain Healthcare’s unpaid Board of Trustees. Marc Harrison, MD, is president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare.