Intermountain Healthcare to Eliminate 250 Business Positions in Effort to Enhance Affordability of Healthcare

To lower overhead and make health services more affordable, Intermountain Healthcare, which employs 41,000 people in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, will eliminate 250 business function positions. No direct patient care positions will be eliminated.

To achieve this reduction, Intermountain will offer about 750 employees in its centralized business functions a voluntary separation package if they are at least age 55 and have 10 or more consecutive years of working with the company. 

Packages for each employee will vary depending on how long they’ve been with Intermountain and their position in the organization. It includes additional pay and health benefits. Eligible employees have two weeks to choose whether to accept the voluntary separation package. 

Also, as announced in June of this year, Intermountain is carefully evaluating and managing any open positions. When an employee voluntarily leaves for another job or for personal needs, Intermountain will only replace positions that are critical for the delivery of care. Currently, 50 open positions in centralized business functions will not be filled.

If the combination of voluntary separation and ongoing attrition does not reach the goal of reducing 250 business positions, Intermountain will use involuntary reductions. 

Intermountain is implementing these changes and some internal reorganization to the Intermountain Medical Group to help keep healthcare more affordable now and in the future. Reducing overhead costs and improving efficiencies with administrative and business functions allows the system to preserve patient care positions. 

Healthcare consumers want more affordable, accessible, streamlined and transparent care, requiring healthcare professionals to work in aligned and coordinated ways. This initiative reflects significant changes that are occurring locally and nationally in healthcare. 

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, patient visits with clinicians using telehealth have increased ten-fold. Technological innovations are making it easier to often provide needed care in settings other than a hospital or clinic. The pandemic has also accelerated the evolution of healthcare and consumerism, and the need to improve quality, value, access, efficiencies, and affordability.

Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit system of 24 hospitals, 225 clinics, a medical group, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in several states. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs. For more information, see intermountainhealthcare.org.