Ozarks Community Hospital yesterday announced it would lay off 200 employees amid closures of three of its facilities.
The health system employed more than 520 in the Springfield area as of July 6, according to Springfield Business Journal list research.
A memo sent to employees - and later to Springfield Business Journal - indicates the health system closed its Springfield inpatient center at 2828 N. National Ave. yesterday and plans to shutter its surgery and emergency departments on July 29.
In the memo, OCH CEO Paul Taylor blamed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for terminating its Medicare agreement, leading to the closures and layoffs. While the agency has not yet sent the hospital official notice, Taylor said officials expect sometime this week to receive notification OCH does not meet the federal definition of a hospital.
“I am angry. What CMS has done is not right. It is not ethical. There has been no allegation that we are providing substandard care,” Taylor wrote in the memo. “The issue is whether we are doing enough inpatient volume.”
Inpatient visits as of July 6 last year totaled 10, compared to outpatient visits of 43,667, according to SBJ’s 2015 list of the area’s largest hospitals. The 2016 list is scheduled to be published in December. Net patient revenue in 2014 for the health system was $55.2 million, roughly flat from 2013, according to list data.
According to the
Social Security Act, a hospital must be primarily engaged in providing services to inpatients, maintain clinical records on all patients and have bylaws in place for staff and physicians, among other rules.
In the memo, Taylor claims OCH has had more inpatient admissions this year than 25 other Missouri hospitals.
“CMS is picking on us because we decided, as a hospital, that we could provide primary care for at-risk patients,” he wrote. “Everyone in health care understands that primary care for at-risk patients is the largest unmet need we have in this nation. We did the right thing and nothing CMS says is going to change that fact.”
Taylor said he would file notice on July 29 with the state of Missouri that OCH is suspending its hospital license.
The health system’s Springfield clinics will remain open, as well as ancillary services at the hospital that assist the clinics, according to the memo.
Taylor said he plans to appeal the CMS decision, but noted it was unlikely OCH would be able to reopen the hospital even if it won the appeal.
“I feel strongly we will win but that will provide little solace to the 200 people who will be losing their jobs,” he wrote.
Taylor could not be reached for comment by deadline.
