Becker's Hospital Review

10 CFO / FINANCE Baylor Scott & White to lay off 102 employees, outsource jobs to India By Alia Paavola D allas-based Baylor Scott & White Health will lay off 102 employees in finance and accounting roles as part of an effort to reshape operations and reduce costs, e Dallas Morning News reported Dec. 5. e duties of the affected workers will be outsourced to a third-party vendor in India. About 18 of the affected Baylor employees will be offered positions with the vendor, ac- cording to the report. A spokesperson for Baylor Scott & White told Becker's Hospital Review in Decem- ber that the system will retain about two- thirds of its corporate finance department. "Our system is continuously looking for ways to reduce costs and improve our ability to provide affordable and quality healthcare for our patients and members. As part of this, we are transforming the way we deliv- er our corporate finance services," the non- profit health system wrote in a statement obtained by Becker's. e cuts follow a larger round of layoffs and furloughs announced in May 2020, which af- fected about 1,200 employees, or 3 percent of its workforce. e health system said it is working to be more efficient and intentional in how re- sources are used. It also plans to add more front-line caregivers and has over 2,000 open clinical jobs, a spokesperson told Becker's. "We care deeply about all our colleagues and are committed to supporting them through this process," the statement read. n Mayo Clinic returns nearly half its federal COVID-19 aid By Alia Paavola M ayo Clinic had returned nearly half of its grants from the Provider Re- lief Fund to HHS as of Dec. 21, the Rochester, Minn.-based system confirmed to Becker's Hospital Review. The health system returned $156 million of the $338 million it received. Mayo said it was able to return the funding, made through the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, due to its earlier-than-expected finan- cial recovery. Mayo said it hopes the "funds can be redistributed to organizations with immediate needs." "Mayo Clinic is grateful for the federal CARES provider relief funding, which was critical to supporting Mayo's response to the COVID-19 pandemic," a state- ment from Mayo Clinic read. "We understand the responsibility that comes with accepting this funding, which was intended to support organizations facing losses resulting from COVID-19. Thanks to the hard work of Mayo Clinic staff and the strong partnerships within the communities we serve, we have been able to resume many of our practice, research and education activities." n Intermountain, UnitedHealthcare launch ACO By Morgan Haefner I mproved health outcomes for Intermountain Healthcare patients with Medicare coverage through UnitedHealthcare is the goal of a new ACO the organizations launched in December. Through the ACO, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain and UnitedHealthcare will work together to coordinate care for the health insurer's Medicare Advantage members, 136,000 of whom live in Utah. For eligible members who receive care from Intermountain primary care physicians, UnitedHealthcare will tie the physi- cians' payment to its members' health outcomes. Intermountain and UnitedHealthcare announced their ACO Dec. 16. Inter- mountain created the ACO through its company Castell, which is focused on moving from fee-for-service medicine to value-based payment models. Castell will help Intermountain's primary care physicians manage medical services and documentation for patients in the ACO. The model will also allow UnitedHealthcare to share patient-level data about members' chronic conditions, past medical care and medications with In- termountain physicians. The data can help physicians know if their patients are more prone to poor outcomes that could lead to emergency room visits or hospitalizations. n

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