Northern Light Health will have fewer employees in the future than it has today, a top executive said Tuesday.
That may mean staffing cuts, but it may also happen through attrition and positions not being filled, said Paul Bolin, executive vice president and chief people and administrative officer for the health care system.
Those changes are likely to be finalized in the next six to eight weeks, Bolin told the Bangor Daily News. The health care provider is also going to evaluate services it provides at all locations.
The details emerged hours after the health care system announced Tuesday that changes will be coming but did not elaborate on what they will be. Northern Light Health lost $156 million in 2024, according to its annual report released in April, and its credit rating has continued to plummet over the years. The health care system is also carrying nearly $617 million in debt at the end of 2024, compared with $445 million at the end of 2023, the report said.
“Although our expenses are outweighing our revenue in fiscal year 2025, we don’t have any immediate concern about being able to meet our debt obligations at all,” Bolin said.
Staffing within the health care system has already been reduced as people leave their jobs and no one is hired into that position, Bolin said.
“We know that today we need to change in order to have a sustainable future for ourselves to provide care to our communities, and so we’re absolutely committed to doing that,” Bolin said.
Changes will come to the leadership teams as well, Bolin said. Various executives have left during the last year and the positions have not been refilled, something that will continue as people retire or leave.
Most recently, Northern Light Acadia’s president Mark Lukens stepped down in early June for “personal reasons.”
The goal is to spend the most money on patient care and that means a smaller leadership team is needed, Bolin said.
Each of the system’s locations will be evaluated to see if there is an overlap in services with other providers, as well as making sure the services are used, Bolin said.
No hospitals will be closed as part of this change, the health care system said. Northern Light closed its Waterville hospital in June.
It has also closed its Interventional Pain Management center in Bangor and outsourced roughly 500 jobs.
There are concerns about federal cuts to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s proposed bill but things are changing too fast to know the impact to Northern Light, Bolin said.
As it stands, the bill will cut roughly $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. About 65 percent of Northern Light’s revenue comes from MaineCare, Medicare and Medicaid.
An amendment secured by Sen. Susan Collins offers some funding relief to rural hospitals but it would not be enough to cover the gap if the other cuts happen.
Northern Light employs about 10,000 people across the state and is Penobscot County’s largest private employer. The system treated more than 350,000 different patients during the 2024 fiscal year, spokesperson Karen Sanborn said.
