Medical staffing company just slashed benefits for doctors, nurses battling COVID-19 OHIO

[OhioChick]

Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2020, 06:52 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Raw Story

Published 5 hours ago

on March 31, 2020

Emergency room doctors and nurses many of whom are dealing with an onslaught of coronavirus patients and shortages of protective equipment — are now finding out that their compensation is getting cut.

Most ER providers in the U.S. work for staffing companies that have contracts with hospitals. Those staffing companies are losing revenue as hospitals postpone elective procedures and non-coronavirus patients avoid emergency rooms. Health insurers are processing claims more slowly as they adapt to a remote workforce.

“Despite the risks our providers are facing, and the great work being done by our teams, the economic challenges brought forth by COVID-19 have not spared our industry,” Steve Holtzclaw, the CEO of Alteon Health, one of the largest staffing companies, wrote in a memo to employees on Monday.

The memo announced that the company would be reducing hours for clinicians, cutting pay for administrative employees by 20%, and suspending 401(k) matches, bonuses and paid time off. Holtzclaw indicated that the measures were temporary but didn’t know how long they would last.


https://www.propublica.org/article/coronavirus-er-doctors-nurses-benefits

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/huge-medical-staffing-company-just-slashed-benefits-for-doctors-and-nurses-battling-covid-19-outbreak/

---

This affects University Hospitals Employees in Cleveland, Ohio.

I've gotten confirmation from colleagues tonight that they have received a memo stating up to a 20% pay cut.....all while running out of PPE's and risking their lives!

Many planning on leaving when shit hits the fan, terrified of risking death to themselves and their families.

Doctors and nurses are afraid to speak to the media for fear of repercussion.

Please keep this K&R'd.

This is a major hospital system in Cleveland, a competitor of the Cleveland Clinic.



This is getting fucking insane.

Might as well throw them all to the wolves.

[LittleGirl]

1. Sure go ahead

Kick em while they’re down.

Damn it. Total system needs to be rewired. Gaaaaaaaa

[Sherman A1]

2. Wonder how many will quit and find another job

It’s not like medical professionals are not in rather high demand at the moment.

[OhioChick]

3. Sad thing is....

People will be left to die due to this decision made by Alteon Health.

The Cleveland Clinic won't be able to handle the brunt of it, if doctors and nurses walk away from University Hospitals. I can't say I blame them though.

[Sherman A1]

6. Yes, that is true

But their skills will likely save people elsewhere. It’s not a great trade off but, there are no good solutions these days.

[OhioChick]

8. The same is happening in Utah at Intermountain Health

Intermountain will cut pay for doctors and nurse practitioners amid coronavirus pandemic

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/03/30/intermountain-is-cutting/

[Sherman A1]

9. I hope that the company reaps the rewards of

This ill considered decision.

[OhioChick]

10. They're greedy bastards

The public will ultimately suffer when doctors and nurses leave.

[Sherman A1]

11. Very true

[DenverJared]

35. They can't leave and find another job easily

Licensing issues make it impossible to go to states where they don't have a license.

Also, all the ER jobs within the state are staffed by one or two companies with similar policies and pay.

[OhioChick]

36. I'm no expert on the matter...

But I believe you're correct.

I think in my area it's either Alteon Health or TeamHealth.

[TEB]

4. Fuck them corporations

Sorry for my language I’m union

[BComplex]

5. I hear New York is looking for some good health care professionals.

These employees need to go out on contract NOW!

[Sunriser13]

7. Disgusting!

More and more the faults of the privatization of, well, everything have started shining through.

What's even more disgusting is that once this crisis is under control, little will change.

[gab13by13]

12. These healthcare companies must not have kissed Trump's ass,

and gotten any of that bail out money? Why didn't they, or did they?

[Grokenstein]

13. Holy F%CK

It's eventually going to reach a point where we stop joking about pitchforks and tumbrels and guillotines.
People are dying.
Their survivors are going to be very angry at anyone who caused their needless death.

[Dennis Donovan]

14. Here's the same article from ProPublica who published the story and are denied "clicks" by RawStory

https://www.propublica.org/article/coronavirus-er-doctors-nurses-benefits

Please use this link. RawStory lifted the content from the news org that actually produced the story (and who really could use your support).

[OhioChick]

15. Didn't see it, added it n/t

[Dennis Donovan]

21. Awesome

ProPublica is an investigative news org and does exceptional work, but are run on donations. RawStory is an aggregate site that basically reprints other's work (robbing the source of clicks and revenue).

Here's their donation page: https://donate.propublica.org/give/203438/#!/donation/checkout

[OhioChick]

22. Gotcha

[Chainfire]

16. Capitalism at it's finest

The only purpose of a corporation is to make money, employees are a commodity to be exploited and discarded. Morals, ethics, and humanity has no place in the system.

[elias7]

17. Their business model is based on dubious billing practices

These national groups are bad news. When they come in to a city, most of the docs choose not to work with them because they don’t treat them well, as evidenced here. The way they make money is by getting out of town docs to come in and work and then charge patients for out of network care, called surprise billing or balance billing. They have been charged and I have settled cases in which they give kickbacks to doctors for inappropriate admissions or transfers. They engage in aggressive billing collection agencies.

Our ER group just fought off an attempt by the hospital to open up the process to a national group; it was so poorly received in our community that they decided to keep our group.

This type of behavior is not a surprise. All of these groups are owned by global investment firms, i.e. hedge funds. Their bottom line is profit.

[OhioChick]

18. I found this to be interesting....

"At Alteon, Holtzclaw wrote that the measures were necessary despite relief available from the $2 trillion stimulus that Congress passed last week."

[Duppers]

46. "Necessary" - for these corporate bottom lines. 😡

Another facet of disaster capitalism that Naomi Klein wrote about in the
Shock Doctrine.













There is no reason this president has no federal policy to manufacture PPEs for ALL health care workers NOW.

[Scarsdale]

20. Every gop member who

voted against impeaching tRump should lose their pay and benefits. That includes the wimpy John Roberts. They were not thinking about the good of the country, only their Russian donations. Moscow Mitch is a multi millionaire, as are a lot of the others. They could afford to "work" free. They propped up the worst of the worst and look where it has taken us. We are a broken country, thanks to the ineffective gop. Now medical staff has to risk their lives daily, for WHAT?

[UpInArms]

23. Dear god ... the greed never ends ...

This is wrong in so many ways ....

The privatization of hospitals... the unregulated capitalist society ... when only those at the top flourish, while those below perish and beg ...

[IronLionZion]

24. The free market is so quick and efficient like that

the greatest health care system in the world.

I get that most of the surge is for ICU/Pulmonary type care for COVID patients. But people don't stop getting other illnesses or injuries. I would hope that people are having fewer injuries by staying home but they are mostly avoiding the ER and hospital because of COVID. I wouldn't want to be near highly infectious patients if I didn't have to.

[UpInArms]

25. Another link ... with more from ProPublica

Emergency room doctors and nurses many of whom are dealing with an onslaught of coronavirus patients and shortages of protective equipment — are now finding out that their compensation is getting cut.

Most ER providers in the U.S. work for staffing companies that have contracts with hospitals. Those staffing companies are losing revenue as hospitals postpone elective procedures and non-coronavirus patients avoid emergency rooms. Health insurers are processing claims more slowly as they adapt to a remote workforce.

“Despite the risks our providers are facing, and the great work being done by our teams, the economic challenges brought forth by COVID-19 have not spared our industry,” Steve Holtzclaw, the CEO of Alteon Health, one of the largest staffing companies, wrote in a memo to employees on Monday.

The memo announced that the company would be reducing hours for clinicians, cutting pay for administrative employees by 20%, and suspending 401(k) matches, bonuses and paid time off. Holtzclaw indicated that the measures were temporary but didn’t know how long they would last.

“It’s completely demoralizing,” said an Alteon clinician who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At this time, of all times, we’re putting ourselves at risk but also putting our families at risk.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/coronavirus-er-doctors-nurses-benefits/amp

[OhioChick]

27. Thank you for providing that link! n/t

[UpInArms]

26. And ... because this has me so pissed .... am going back to where the fart was let ... GWHB

1964: Medicare is socialized medicine

In his 1964 Senate race, George ridiculed his opponent for voting for medical care for the aged. He compared the bill to a federal program to air-condition ship holds for apes and baboons, dubbing it "medical air for the caged."

George seemed to have regressed. His 1964 campaign was opposed to everything his father represented: civil rights, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, open housing, Medicare. George called Medicare "socialized medicine" and Martin Luther King Jr. "a militant."

Source: The Family, by Kitty Kelley, p.216 & 218 , Sep 14, 2004

[UpInArms]

28. And am going to add this to the mix ...

Redbaiting is the Bush strategy on health care.

In 1992, President George Herbert Walker Bush was surrounded by spiraling health care costs and 37 million uninsured families. Beholden to health care industry PACs, Bush produced no plan other than a minuscule tax cut and telling people not to drink or smoke and to wear their seat belts. He tried to turn any discussion about controlling costs into hammers and sickles.

When some Democrats in Congress talked about a more national health care system, Bush railed, ''I am going to fight a nationalized, socialized medicine approach for this country.'' Bush added, ''They think socialized medicine - everything provided by the government, totally government-controlled medical care is just the ticket ... It's also the ticket for treatment waiting lines. Anyone who has spent months checking the mail for that income tax refund or tried to track down a missing Social Security check or wasted a day in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles is going to think long and hard before the let the government play doctor.''

Eight years later, Bush's son, George W., is running for president. Now we have 44 million Americans without health insurance. (The senior Bush may have lost with his redbaiting, but the health care industry did not.)

Democratic rival Al Gore has scored points with voters by seizing upon health care. Gore has singled out some drug companies for price gouging and promised health insurance for all children and a prescription drug benefit. Gore says America should move ''step by step'' toward universal coverage. That may be too incremental for hard-core advocates of a national system, but it is light years ahead of George W., who had no plan coming out of his convention. His new, economy-sized prescription drug plan was crafted so as to not offend health care industries like pharmaceuticals, which give three times more money to the Republican Party than to the Democratic Party.

This leaves George W. reaching into his daddy's tackle box to pull out more red bait. His press aides call Gore's attack on pharmaceuticals a ''nationalized drug plan,'' ''similar to Hillary Clinton's attempt to nationalize health care.''

http://graphics.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/Bush_s_strategy_on_health_care_like_father_like_son+.shtml

[Lonestarblue]

29. Atheon is private equity, the most rapacious capitalists existing.

Allowing the great white sharks of the business world to have any part of our healthcare system is a guarantee of poor healthcare and bad pay and benefits.

[Raven123]

30. I don't get it. Why doesn't the CEO call Mnuchin? Oh that's right Airlines are more important

[Ford_Prefect]

31. Vulture Capitalism Strikes Again!

[turbinetree]

32. Maybe be in stimulus 4 maybe its time to nationalize the health care system.....................

seriously..........................this is just fucked up................private equity investments..................

[questionseverything]

51. healthcare is too important for capitalism

lotta peops on du want no part of m4a so I guess they are fine with the actions of this board, afterall if money has to be made in healthcare there are going to be some casualties

[ProfessorGAC]

33. They're Only $102Million In Revenues

Couldn't find a link to their cash position, but I did find there was no information on the net about investments by the company. Their competitor field was filled with companies in the billions.
The CEO gets a rating of 70%, so this is about Glassdoor's average of 69.
Meaning he's clearly not a star. But, it does mean 70% of employees approve of him.
I'm guessing that number takes a tumble.
A smallish med care firm with no investing & no published cash position.
Sounds like 70 is already too high!

[UpInArms]

34. Who and what is Alteon Health? Answers here

https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/1553940D:US

Board Members

NAME/COMPANY
Vignesh M Aier
New Mountain Capital LLC
Nader J Naini
Frazier Management LLC
Andre V Moura
New Mountain Capital LLC

They all link back to New Mountain Capital

https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/18079837

About New Mountain Capital LLC

New Mountain Capital, L.L.C. operates as a private equity firm. The Company manages private and public equity and credit capital. New Mountain Capital serves customers in the United States.
SECTOR
Financials
INDUSTRY
Asset Management
SUB-INDUSTRY
Private Equity
FOUNDED
03/17/2004
ADDRESS
787 7th Avenue 49th Floor New York, NY 10019 United States
PHONE
1-212-720-0300
WEBSITE
www.newmountaincapital.com
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
--

They are a private company ... not traded unlucky, so little information is available

[OhioChick]

37. You're great at digging up things....

Alteon Health is catching hell on Twitter.

I did read an article that said that TeamHealth would never do this to staff during a pandemic and aren't even considering it.

[rickyhall]

38. Dear Mr. CEO, did you give up your pay, Motherfucker?

[SpankMe]

39. Yet another reason that medical care as a for-profit enterprise is a bad idea. n/t

[OhioChick]

40. Looks like Alteon Health is Attempting Damage Control

We continue to do everything we can to support our providers doing work on the front lines of the COVID-19 health crisis. As the CEO of Alteon Health and a practicing physician, I am on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis myself as we speak, actively seeing patients in the ER as I continue to do clinical rounds in addition to my role as CEO. As the pandemic continues to evolve, we have taken necessary steps to ensure that we can continue to support our doctors, other clinicians, patients, and hospital partners.

That is why I was extremely disappointed to see a recent article published that mischaracterized these actions. We have not cut clinical rates for providers in the field. In fact, doctors and other clinicians who are working more hours on COVID-related cases will get paid more than they would have previously. At the same time, we have expanded eligibility for our clinician health benefits, and we are paying doctors who are self-isolating.

As we build resources for the COVID-19 fight, we are reducing administrative costs but not at the expense of clinicians, as there are fewer needs for non-COVID cases as people stay home more than ever. In situations where there is a surge of clinical need, we will ensure full coverage and support of our valued clinicians.

Sincerely,

Steve Holtzclaw, M.D.

Source: https://www.alteonhealth.com/alteon-health-issues-update-on-covid-19-actions/

Prior to this position Steve Holtzclaw was the president of TeamHealth (the group that employed the doctor in Washington that got fired for speaking out on the Peace Health not providing PPE).

Prior to joining Alteon, he served most recently as President of Hospital-Based services for TeamHealth until late 2017.

Source: https://www.alteonhealth.com/alteon-health-appoints-dr-steve-holtzclaw-chief-executive-officer/

They removed their management team information from their website. (to protect the guilty?)

Here's a link to the internet archive that shows who these scumbags are:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190608144045/https://www.alteonhealth.com/home-page/about/

Scroll down to the bottom and meet the "team".

[Duppers]

41. Thank you for this info, OhioChick!

[OhNo-Really]

43. Here are pics of the Greedy Heartless Executives

Link to tweet

How do they sleep at night!

[Grokenstein]

44. Hi, guys! We seeeeeeeeeeeee you!

[GulfCoast66]

47. In a big house. With a comfortable bed.

They don’t care. They are shocked most Americans do.

[Turbineguy]

42. It's about money

medicine may be involved.

[ck4829]

50. A clear second

[Withywindle]

45. PURE EVIL

Medical workers need to be protected and cared for at all costs. They are literally the most important people in the country right now. And they're getting sick and dying. And a corporation pulls THIS shit?

[OhioChick]

48. There's money to be made n/t

[ck4829]

49. K&R