Bayada Home Health Care is one of the largest home care providers in the United States, cutting head office staff by 10%, or about 100 jobs.
The company said the layoffs were the result of operating in a difficult refund environment.
“Bayada is stable, strong and growing, but we operate in a challenging environment where the costs of providing care are growing faster than governments and insurers are able to pay for it,” the company said in a statement. “This requires us to be more efficient and intentional about how we work, so we can continue to serve our clients right now.”
Bayada offers home health, home care, hospice and behavioral health services in 23 states and several other countries. The company also has international locations operating in Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand and Korea. Overall, Bayada has around 32,000 employees nationwide.
Work affected by the layoffs included operational and administrative support for Bayada across the organization. The company's statement confirmed that the roles of service offices and nursing care delivery teams were not affected.
Bayada offers financial support, health benefits scholarships and personalized transition assistance to fired employees, according to the company.
“This was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make as an organization,” Bayada CEO David Baiada said in a statement. “Nevertheless, he is a thoughtful steward of our mission and protecting the clients we serve for the next 50+ years reflects our responsibility.”
Bayada's recent layoffs are not the first time the company has made its way into records about providers facing a challenging refund landscape.
Regarding last year's episode of HHCN++, Michael Johnson, chief researcher of home care innovation at Bayada, described the situation with home health care payments as “uncertain.” He named Medicare payment reductions from CMS, audit scrutiny, staffing and the political environment as contributing factors.
Bayada is one of the more active home care companies when it comes to advocacy. Last year, Bayada's Chief Government Affairs Officer David Totaro explained the importance of standing up to the industry as a whole.
“Our schedule has always been go-go,” he said in an episode of HHCN's Destroy Podcast. “There's no stopping, it's not advocacy. Consistency is really important. One thing we've learned over the last six to nine months is that our role as providers is to turn our role from discussions about costs and cuts to a narrative of why or how these reductions affect the lives of our legislator conventions.”
