Ballad freezes 1,300 jobs

Ballad Health announced Wednesday morning that it will place an estimated 1,300 employees on temporary furlough.

Also planned are salary cuts for senior executive leaders.

These and other changes aim to address three goals, the health system said in a press release:

• Meet critical staffing needs.

• Provide relief to employees who have seen their work hours reduced because of lower patient volumes.

• Cut Ballad’s fixed administrative costs. The health system projects it will lose more than $150 million of cashflow in the next 90 days.

Ballad said it will guarantee work hours during each pay period “for certain direct patient care roles, including bedside nursing, respiratory therapy, and nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses who support bedside nursing, until further notice.” When those workers are not needed for direct patient care, “they may be asked to perform other functions that are within their scope of practice and/or which they are qualified to perform, or they may simply be called off without a reduction in pay.”

Employees who are furloughed will be able to file for unemployment benefits, funded in part by Ballad and in part by the federal government’s recently-passed economic stimulus legislation. Their health insurance and pharmacy benefits will continue.

Furloughed workers may be recalled at any time.

Virginia employees who qualify for unemployment benefits will need to file their own claims through the Virginia Workforce Connection at https://www.vawc.virginia.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx or by calling 866/832-2363. Employees must then certify the claim each week by calling 800/897-5630.

Employees who are senior vice presidents or above will get a 20 percent salary cut for 60 days. Assistant vice presidents or vice presidents will see a 10 percent cut. Chief Executive Officer Alan Levine is giving up his entire compensation package for 60 days.