One of Bangor’s major health care providers gained access to the federal funding it needs to pay its employees, saving it from furloughing a quarter of its staff.
A day after Penobscot Community Health Care reported it was at risk of furloughing up to 25 percent of its roughly 850 employees, funding was restored, the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday. It was not immediately clear why the money had been delayed.
PCHC receives $5.6 million in federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration each year, which it uses to make ends meet and pay its employees, according to Lori Dwyer, PCHC’s president.
On Tuesday, Dwyer said the organization’s account read “pending review” when leadership tried to access funding to prepare paychecks for the next pay cycle. While PCHC would be able to pay staff this week, Dwyer said she would have needed to furlough administrative positions that don’t directly “face” patients if that federal funding couldn’t be accessed by Friday.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, of which the Health Resources and Services Administration is a part, said in an email Wednesday that the problem was the result of “technical issues” at a service that processes payments for the federal government.
“The system is back up and running now, but users may be experiencing lags due to the high volume of requests,” he said.
BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed to this report.
