OLYMPIA, WA – Employees at one of Washington state’s largest health agencies are bracing for layoffs due to ongoing funding challenges.
Though how many could lose their jobs and when aren’t known, the leader of the Washington Health Care Authority told workers in a Wednesday email that she “didn’t want to wait to let you know that layoffs will be part of our path forward.”
“Despite significant efforts to close our budget gap, we’ve reached a point where workforce reductions will be necessary,” wrote MaryAnne Lindeblad, the agency’s interim director who will hand the baton to a new executive this month. “These decisions are not a reflection of anyone’s performance or value; they’re driven by the size of our shortfall and the structure of our funding.”
With roughly 1,900 employees, the agency is responsible for purchasing and coordinating health care services, including behavioral health treatment, for 2.7 million residents.
It administers the state’s Medicaid program known as Apple Health and health benefits for public and school employees. As of June, more than 1.9 million Washington residents, including over 850,000 children, were enrolled in Apple Health, according to the state Health Care Authority.
In June, Gov. Bob Ferguson hired Ryan Moran, Maryland’s deputy health secretary, to be the new Health Care Authority director. HIs first day is Aug. 18.
A Health Care Authority spokesperson did not say if Moran had been consulted on the email before Lindeblad sent it out.
Nor did the spokesperson say if the layoffs are due to the agency receiving fewer dollars in the state budget or to the tangible threat posed by new federal rules for Medicaid funding.
“A reduction in force at HCA is deeply difficult news for employees and the communities we serve,” said Katie Pope, deputy chief communications director, in an email. “We are working to responsibly manage limited resources while continuing to meet our legal and programmatic commitments to Washington residents.”
Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, said the union had not received formal notice of layoffs as required in collective bargaining agreements. The union represents 54,000 state government, higher education and public service workers including ones at the Health Care Authority.
“Folks are definitely concerned. They are definitely worried,” he said. “It is a combination. They wonder how long. ‘I survived this round. Will I be around for the next one?’”
What’s happening at the Health Care Authority isn’t an anomaly. State workers have lost jobs or been pressed into lower-paying positions in recent months as agencies comply with cost-cutting directives from the governor and reduced funding for some programs in the state budget.
One example is the Department of Health where layoffs totaled 44 as of June 30. Less state dollars and the loss of federal pandemic money were the reasons. Further layoffs are anticipated as a result of state and federal budget reductions, a spokesperson said.
According to the Office of Financial Management, 176 people lost their jobs in the fiscal year that ended June 30 with another 96 bumping into a different position.
The figure could surge in the coming 12 months because lawmakers did not fund 1,385 full-time-equivalent positions in state government in the current fiscal year, according to the governor’s budget office.
“We knew there would be rounds of layoffs,” Yestramski said.
Agency leaders seem to be trying to minimize the impacts on people, he said. In some places, positions are kept vacant and thus available for someone to bump into without bumping someone else out of their job, he said.
“But you can’t get away without some folks getting harmed,” Yestramski said.
In June, Washington’s Employment Security Department started hosting webinars to teach state workers who were laid off, facing a furlough or expecting a workforce reduction about available unemployment benefits and reemployment services.
Four hundred people attended the first three. The fourth will be held Tuesday.
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