Northern Light Inland Hospital and its associated Waterville clinics are slated to be shut down and will halt patient care on May 27 before fully closing their doors on June 11, its administration said on Thursday.
According to the announcement, Lakewood Continuing Care, a 105-bed facility, will remain open and will not be affected by these changes.
A statement posted on the Northern Light Health Facebook page explained that the 48-bed hospital has been struggling under the weight of financial pressures and labor shortages.
“Like hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide, Northern Light Health continues to feel the immense pressure of higher operational costs, unsustainably low reimbursement rates, and a tight labor market,” the post said.
The hospital administration went on to lay out what the next steps are for current patients as they wind down their operations.
In the coming weeks, clinics will be contacting patients about moving their care to another facility.
For those with appointments scheduled after May 27, alternative options will be suggested, it said. Patients are instructed to still go to appointments as planned if they are scheduled prior to May 27.
Northern Light further encourages patients to seek alternate arrangements as soon as possible to avoid disruptions in care.
Click Here to read the Full Notice from Northern Light Health
In a letter sent to employees obtained by WABI, Northern Light reportedly told them that Waterville-area patients have “a number of healthcare options available to them,” unlike many of the other areas served by the organization.
The email goes on to suggest that this will allow them to “direct scare resources to those regions where access to care is more limited.”
According to WABI, the letter tells employees that many of them will likely be able to remain in roles affiliated with the organization, filling out other positions within the system.
In August of last year, Northern Light ended its Medicare Advantage contract with Humana, which was expected to result in many older Mainers being forced to pay more out of pocket.
Humana Military patients were not affected by this change, only those who use Humana’s Medicare Advantage plan.
Northern Light went on to tell patients that while it will continue to service those using this insurance as an out-of-network provider, this will likely result in higher out-of-pocket costs for such patients.
By the end of 2023, Northern Light reportedly had an operating deficit of $36 million, a promising upturn from the 2022 deficit of $132 million. By August of 2024, they appeared to have moved deeper into the red and had already incurred a $60 million deficit.
Earlier this year, Northern Light had announced plans to consolidate several outpatient services in the Waterville areas into the Medical Arts Building on the Inland Hospital campus, including their primary care, endocrinology, physical therapy, and cardiovascular care.
Inland Hospital recently announced that they would be suspending birthing services at their location beginning on March 1. These services were also put on hold at Northern Light Women’s Health in Portland.
Ongoing recruiting challenges reportedly were the main contributing factor to this decision.
Officials at the time said that they were working with MaineGeneral Health, Redington Fairview Hospital, and other Northern Light locations to help expecting families in the Waterville area.
There are reportedly no plans to close any other Northern Light hospital locations in Maine at this time.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="36670 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=36670">7 Comments
Sounds like the government tit dried up. When the cost to pay for care of illegal’s and layabouts comes out of overhead, well that ain’t gonna happen. You can thank your governor for this.
“was expected to result in many older Mainers being forced to pay more out of pocket.”
Just more abandon home to be turned to China grow homes as older are forced to leave. Thank you Janet.
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I like your articles but the grammar mistakes and typos drive me a little nuts. Northern Lights should have sent their patients letters already. There are definitely NOT alternatives locally to replace some of their services.
Recruiting challenges? Manpower issues? Wasn’t it just a few years ago that Northern Light was firing anyone who refused the covid shots? They then had to bring in people from outside the area at much higher cost to replace them. All that higher cost stayed with them! Then just recently they dropped Humana saying that they wern’t paying them enough. Well at least they were paying them something.Northern Light has been closing down clinics and losing doctors who were affiliated with them and all the income that they provided. Northern Light is badly managed. They will soon go bancrupt and be bought out by some other organization.
One reason that I heard, several years ago, was that the reason that Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, parent of NL/EMMC, bought a number of smaller rural hospitals, was to make the NL/ Eastern Maine HealthCare System a less appealing target for buyout by larger out of state healthcare systems. Could be just a rumor, but also might make some sense because many, if not most, Mainers don’t want their (our) hospitals owned and operated by larger out-of-state companies, etc.