Trios cuts 3 therapy services to save money

Trios Health is cutting three outpatient therapy services as it continues to work its way through bankruptcy and regain solid financial footing.

The services — outpatient physical, occupational and speech-language therapy — will end Feb. 28.

Outpatient cardiac rehab and pulmonary rehab will remain. All inpatient therapy services, for patients admitted to the hospital, also will continue.

Employees in the affected departments have been notified. It was unclear Monday whether layoffs would happen as a result of the cut.

“The challenge has been — and continues to be — that the service line’s revenues, which include reimbursements from insurances, do not cover the cost of delivering the services. And, they haven’t for years,” Craig Cudworth, CEO, said in a statement.

“Despite our best efforts to find ways to cover the losses and preserve these outpatient services, we have arrived at a point that we must make a difficult change or suffer further consequences to Trios Health at a time when we cannot afford to lose ground,” he said.

Trios officials are “quickly working to move displaced staff into other available positions, where possible, and helping others locate employment with other local therapy service providers in the community,” Cudworth said in the statement.

Patient letters are in the mail, explaining the change and providing guidance for finding new providers.

The Monday announcement comes on the heels of other cuts at Trios Health.

The Kennewick public hospital district announced earlier this month that it was laying off some employees as it continued to fix its finances. About nine workers of its about 1,200 employees were expected to be affected.

Trios is in the midst of Chapter 9 bankruptcy. It’s negotiating with creditors and talking with RCCH and University of Washington Medicine about a possible partnership.

The process has taken longer than expected, “but we firmly believe that we will soon come to agreement and be in a position to move forward — out of bankruptcy and as a stronger asset for this community,” Cudworth said.

The three eliminated outpatient services lost $450,000 last year. The losses were because of lower reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid and not the quality of the care, Cudworth said.

Trios sees a disproportionately high number of Medicare/Medicaid patients, he said. “We literally receive pennies on the dollar in reimbursements and, no matter what we do, we can’t make the math work in our favor,” he said.

The decision to end the three outpatient therapies was difficult, but it’s a consolation to know there are other qualified outpatient providers to take over patient care, Cudworth said.

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Trios cuts 3 therapy services to save money."