Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health will lay off around 100 accounting and finance employees as the largest health system in the state copes with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The not-for-profit health system plans to outsource those roles to workers in India to free up capital for patient care as COVID-19 cases swell in Texas. The third-party vendor will hire some of the displaced Baylor Scott & White employees, the organization said, which has nearly 45,000 workers across its network.
"As we continue to reshape our operations for the future, we are being more intentional in how we direct our resources to patient and member care," the organization said in a statement, noting that it has 2,000 open clinical positions. "While we will be retaining approximately two-thirds of our corporate finance department, about 100 positions are being eliminated, and some of our impacted employees are being offered positions with a third-party vendor. We care deeply about all our colleagues and are committed to supporting them through this process."
The move follows a round of 1,200 layoffs in May, which was in response to significant losses stemming from deferred non-urgent procedures.
At that time, there were around 60,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Texas. That number has ballooned to 1.3 million, increasing by about 300,000 cases over the past month, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
For the most recent quarter ended Sept. 30, Baylor Scott & White reported an operating income of $388 million on operating revenue of $2.9 billion, up from $198 million of operating income on operating revenue of $2.7 billion for the same period a year prior, according to Modern Healthcare's financial database.
For its 2020 fiscal year that ended June 30, the organization reported a $559 million operating income on $10.5 billion of operating revenue, down from a $725 million operating income on $10.1 billion of operating revenue.
Baylor Scott & White received $53 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act grants in the first quarter of 2021 and $187 million in the 2020 fiscal year. The organization did not say if the layoffs impact those funds.
