Becker's Hospital Review

22 CFO / FINANCE Kaiser to lay off 200 workers in Northern California By Morgan Haefner K aiser Permanente is laying off about 200 employees across Northern California as part of a staffing reor- ganization, the Oakland, Calif.-based health system confirmed in a statement to Becker's Hospital Review May 2. The reorganization will eliminate primarily nonclinical ad- ministrative support roles, as well as workers in temporary, on call and per diem positions. The layoffs come as Kaiser changes some of its internal operations and staff structures to standardize processes and reduce duplicative work. "While these changes will represent a very small percent- age of our workforce, we do not undertake them lightly and we always consider the support our valued colleagues will need as a result of these decisions," the health system said in a statement to Becker's. Kaiser has more than 149,000 employees in California. n Optum's growth and operations in Q1: 10 numbers to know By Morgan Haefner O ptum saw its revenue and customer base grow in the first quarter of 2021 as the com- pany continues to expand. Ten numbers to know: 1. Optum's revenue grew to $36.4 billion in the first quarter, up from $32.8 billion the year prior. 2. OptumHealth served 99 million people at the end of the first quarter, compared to 96 million people a year prior. 3. OptumRx filled 329 million prescriptions in the first quarter of this year, down from 339 million last year. 4. Optum is on track to add 10,000 physicians in 2021, executives said during a first-quarter earnings call April 15. Optum now has 56,000 affiliated, con- tracted and employed physicians. 5. OptumCare serves 4 million patients in account- able care arrangements, and 2 million are under fully capitated arrangements. n Hospitals bolster opposition to site-neutral payments in April study By Morgan Haefner M oves to reimburse hospitals the same amount as physician offices may threaten access to care, ac- cording to an April study from the American Hos- pital Association on site-neutral payments. The study, conducted for the AHA by KNG Health Consult- ing, looked at claims data representing a 5 percent sample of Medicare beneficiaries. Claims covered inpatient, outpa- tient and professional services. Three findings: 1. Medicare patients treated in hospital outpatient depart- ments are more likely to come from lower-income areas and have chronic conditions. 2. Twenty-eight percent of hospital outpatient visits came after an emergency department visit that occurred 90 days beforehand. That's compared to 17 percent of indepen- dent physician office visits. 3. Medicare patients who visit a hospital outpatient depart- ment are 73 percent more likely to be dual eligible for Medi- care and Medicaid than those who visit an independent phy- sician office. n Medicare appeals backlog trimmed by 69% By Alia Paavola H HS has reduced the backlog of Medicare ap- peals at the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals by more than 69 percent, according to a March 26 status report. As of March 26, a total of 131,961 appeals were pending at the office. This is down from 426,594. The reduction is in response to a 2018 federal court ruling that established an annual baseline for cutting the Medicare appeals at the administrative judge lev- el, according to the American Hospital Association. "HHS met the reduction target for the first quarter of FY 2021 and is on track to meet the subsequent reduction targets set forth in the Court's Nov. 1, 2018 order," HHS said in the status report. n

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