Main Line Health lays off nearly 200 nonclinical staff, 1.5% of workforce
The layoffs are part of the nonprofit health system’s effort to restore its financial health after several years of losses.
Main Line Health laid off around 200 administrative and management staff Wednesday as the nonprofit health system with four hospitals in Philadelphia’s western suburbs tries to improve its financial condition after three years of substantial losses and continued financial pressure.
Main Line’s layoffs follow recent cuts at Independence Blue Cross, Jefferson Health, and Lehigh Valley Health Network, which Jefferson acquired in August.
“The landscape in health care is awful, and it’s only getting worse,” Main Line CEO Jack Lynch said in an interview.
Lynch cited as factors: inadequate payment increases from Medicare and Medicaid, government insurance plans that cover 65% of Main Line’s patients; insurance denials; and a delay in the expected payment of $25 million to the health system in federal COVID-19 aid.
Most of Main Line’s cuts are in administrative support, such as information technology, finance, human resources, revenue cycle, and accounting, Lynch said. The reduction goes beyond rank-and-file employees, reaching “a significant number of management personnel, including some vice presidents,” he said.
Clinicians, housekeepers, unit secretaries, patient care techs, and medical assistants were not included, according to Lynch, who is retiring in June.
The cuts are expected to save more than $30 million annually.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Main Line’s operating loss was $61 million, down from $125 million the year before. So far in fiscal 2025, Main Line has a loss, but it’s less than last year.
The effort to restore Main Line’s financial health is not just about cutting jobs.
“We’re spending a lot of effort and focus on growing our ambulatory footprint, both in places, locations, and number of people we care for,” Lynch said.
Main Line is adding to its existing network of outpatient facilities a new outpatient facility near Downingtown. It also has plans to build medical offices on the former campus of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, across Lancaster Avenue from Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood.
Amid financial challenges, Lynch said Main Line’s hospitals are extremely busy. Lankenau and Riddle Hospital in Media picked up patients from Crozer’s closures of Delaware County Memorial and Springfield Hospitals. Paoli Hospital was impacted by Tower Health’s closure of Jennersville and Brandywine Hospitals in western Chester County.
Depending on what happens at Crozer, which is operating in bankruptcy, Main Line hospitals could face even more pressure from areas of Delaware County served by Crozer. When Crozer-Chester Medical Center had a fire late last month, 17 patients were transferred to Main Line, Lynch said.
“I’m very, very worried about what’s going to happen to Crozer,” he said.