Until as recently as last month, the prevailing wisdom — at least among leading healthcare policy watchers — was that the healthcare industry, as an economic sector, was immune from the short term effects of a recession. As long as there are people getting sick, they’ll always come to the doctor, right? With all of the recent reports detailing  job losses week after week, it was only a matter of time before the ripple effect would be felt by healthcare organizations and their providers. Job lay-offs and losses mean lost benefits, which means a loss of margin for healthcare orgs. Consider the financial squeeze felt by the insurance companies (the providers of reimbursements to healthcare) and cuts to government payers (Medicare and Medicaid) as states get the pinch; one doesn’t have to think that lay-offs occuring among healthcare line and support personnel will not occur in short order. In fact, they already have — starting with the least senior staff in many healthcare organizations. Hit especially hard are markets in which managed care is king — like the Twin Cities region in Minnesota. | LINK

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