Making Healthcare Work for Mainers

Making Healthcare Work for You

Northern Light Health has a long-standing history of keeping our promises in the Maine communities we serve by providing the care and services that make healthcare work for you. We want you to know what we’re doing to ensure that we continue to keep those promises for generations to come.

Healthcare in the state of Maine and in rural communities across the country is facing many challenges and a period of rapid change and transition. In response, we are thinking differently about care to sustain the important services our communities need. While change is challenging, it also offers opportunities for improvement. The changes at Northern Light Health are centered around our commitment to our communities, to design and deliver sustainable, high-quality healthcare for the people of Maine today and in the future.

 

The Challenges We Face Together

Maine isn’t alone in the healthcare challenges we’re facing. Throughout the US, states that are made up of mostly rural communities are facing the same hurdles. These challenges include aging populations, access limitations related to geography and transportation, limited workforce pools, recruitment, and post-pandemic inflation and supply chain issues.

Maine Population

As a state, Maine is aging - including our patients and our workforce. Our population is flat or decreasing, with the exception of 65+ which saw an estimated 19% growth over the last ten years.

Maine Workforce

Working on the frontlines of healthcare delivery is physically demanding, especially in the hospital setting, and an aging workforce affects the number of employees able to care for our neighbors.

Rural communities present unique recruiting challenges in attracting and retaining physicians, nurses, and specialists. Physicians often prefer, and to some extent need, to be in settings where they see many patients, necessary to maintain their skills and expertise.

Access to Healthcare

Current and past healthcare design, and some of the ways we are familiar with accessing care, are no longer supported by rural realities. At Northern Light Health, we continuously evaluate the variety and access points of services throughout Maine to ensure regional access to care. As access points and technologies evolve, we are committed to helping our patients navigate changes to connect them with the care they need.

Rising Costs

The pandemic not only accelerated the changes the healthcare industry was experiencing, it created new challenges including increasing the cost of labor and supplies. These challenges are detailed in an April 2024 published research brief from the American Hospital Association titled Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Rural Hospitals. According to another report by KaufmanHall, since 2019, two-thirds of hospitals [in the U.S.] have seen a decline in their operating income, with half of rural hospitals experiencing negative margins. The cost of providing healthcare is now much higher than what providers are paid for services, resulting in a financial loss.

 

Building the Pathway to our Future: Northern Light Health

We live in a fundamentally different world than we did in 2019, one that requires significant changes to make rural healthcare sustainable.

Northern Light Health clinical and operational staff and leaders are implementing plans to strengthen the financial foundation of our organization for the future, deliver on our mission to serve our communities, and provide healthcare services in new ways to meet patients’ needs.

 

Steps Northern Light Health is Taking

Northern Light Health is committed to providing competitive salaries and benefits for our staff. We have accelerated hiring to reduce expensive, temporary staffing.

Northern Light Health is working to reduce and streamline the administrative costs of running a healthcare system through innovative partnerships and technology, so we can focus on investing in access to care and cutting edge medical technologies.

Northern Light Health has collaborative relationships with other healthcare organizations and service providers, and shares processes and services across our clinical services and system.

Northern Light Health invests in education resources to prepare future healthcare workers and is working to bring more clinicians from other countries to meet staffing shortages here in Maine. We provide CNA training at no cost and are partnering with local community schools to offer earn as you learn programs.

Northern Light Health makes strategic investments to strengthen our promise to make healthcare work for Mainers. We have invested in the preservation of access to care - modernizing facilities in four communities at Northern Light Mercy in Portland, CA Dean in Greenville, Maine Coast in Ellsworth, and Blue Hill. Clinical support from Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center has improved regional access to cardiology, orthopedic, and oncology services. Northern Light Acadia Hospital’s significant renovation expanded access to adult and children’s services, in response to Maine’s critical need for behavioral health resources.

Resources

Community Town Hall Presentation (PPTX)
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The Nursing Workforce in Maine: Trends & Forecasts 2020/21 to 2022/24
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We continue our commitment to thoughtful growth and the pursuit of meaningful opportunities to improve the care of patients and the experience of our staff.

Our partnerships, research, and infrastructure efforts are at the heart of securing the long-term future of healthcare - to ensure patients receive the best care and services, from dedicated staff and experts and that all our staff have the tools and resources they need to deliver that care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Like hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide, Northern Light Health is experiencing immense pressure from higher operational costs, unsustainably low governmental payor reimbursement rates, and a tight labor market for physicians and other clinical staff.

Our organization recorded negative recurring operating income for 2022 and 2023 and we anticipate reporting similarly negative operating income for fiscal year 2024. We are not alone in our financial challenges, the majority of hospitals in Maine are experiencing financial losses with 61% of recording negative operating margin during the second quarter of 2024.

Northern Light Health clinical and operational staff and leaders are implementing plans to strengthen the financial foundation of our organization for the future, deliver on our mission to serve our communities, and provide health services in new ways to meet patients’ needs.

Northern Light Health is transforming our organization to align with what patients and communities need from us in the future. Our strategy to address current healthcare challenges and obstacles is about making thoughtful and responsible decisions with the patient at the center. Decisions include expense reduction and strategic growth, to find new efficiencies while protecting services for the communities we serve.

We’re taking action to reduce and streamline administrative costs, so we can focus on investing in access to care and medical technology. We’re launching innovative collaborations, implementing more efficient processes across our system, adopting new approaches to grow our talent and workforce resources, and balancing the cost of care with the revenues we are paid.

We have no plans at this time to go out of network with other carriers. We do continuously monitor the aggressive business practices of our payors and the impact these practices have on our ability to sustain care for patients and for our patients to be able to have timely access the medically necessary care they are entitled to.

We are committed to providing competitive wages for all employees and have no plans to reduce pay. Benefits continue to evolve, as we need to ensure our offerings are competitive, meet employee needs, and align with evolving state and federal requirements.

No. Northern Light Health is not exploring a sale. We have a long-standing history of serving our communities and our plans are focused on sustaining services long-term to deliver on our promise to make healthcare work for Mainers. Going forward, how we deliver care and provide services will evolve to ensure we are able to thrive into the future. These changes will include finding innovative ways to work with additional partners in our communities and nationally to ensure the sustainability of locally-delivered care for our rural communities.

We have implemented strategic changes in our leadership structure to guide our organization effectively. Being part of a larger system offers significant advantages, and we will continue to assess our leadership framework to ensure we are optimally positioned to meet future needs.

We have a track record of finding new ways to meet community needs.

Moving forward, we’re analyzing how we address the realities facing healthcare in our state while keeping our promise to Maine communities.

We plan to streamline more processes, implement new service delivery models and technology, and continue to align our teams to ensure a great patient and staff experience - which is not easy. But we know it is the right thing to do. We will continue to share our plans as they develop and keep our communities involved as partners in strengthening our relationship together.

We are confident that these changes will allow us to continue to serve Mainers for generations to come.

Questions & Media Inquiries

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