Deseret News | Reader comments: Intermountain Healthcare cuts 401(k) match for employees

Reader comments
Intermountain Healthcare cuts 401(k) match for employees

notmd | 8:30 a.m. Dec. 2, 2008

as a manager in a health care organization, i would rather take a temporary hit in my 401k plan then to have more layoffs..our medical center continues to see approx the same amount of patients so to lose staff would put a stress on operations and the quality of care..i would think the senior management of intermountain would state exactly how much they are giving up to support the operations to show that they have skin in the game..

Wife | 9:05 a.m. Dec. 2, 2008

As the wife of an employee for IHC, I can tell you that as we've discussed things and IHC's plans for not matching the 401K next year, we are very satisfied with the decision they made. I can assure you that we would both prefer to have a job in these troubling economic times than to be able to receive a match on our 401K at the expense of possibly laying off employees. Sometimes tough decisions have to be made, and I believe that IHC is, in fact, taking prudent steps to maintain the quality of care they provide, as well as to do everything they can to keep their employees. Tough times call for sacrifices - we all have to make them.

Budget Cut | 10:23 a.m. Dec. 2, 2008

Hopefully the CEO and Leadership are taking a pay cut and are cancelling all parties and gifts to upper management. There was another time a few years back that they wanted all areas to cut the budget but the executive leadship got huge bonuses, pay raises, received holiday gifts.

Layoffs would be bad but executive leadership makes too much money and especially for a non-profit.

Comments continue below

Depression | 11:09 a.m. Dec. 2, 2008

Utah definitions:

A recession is when Pilgrams Pride/GM/Lehman Brothers are hurting.

A depression is when Intermountain is hurting.

thoughts | 12:52 a.m. Dec. 3, 2008

maybe they need to close LDS Hospital since they opened IMED in murray LDS has been hurting even being in the red. they may have over saturated the salt lake valley, soon the new riverton hospital will open spreading patient- hospital ratios too thin. i hope things improve for ihc i worked for them and also was a patient too! they are a good company.

Anonymous | 8:20 p.m. Dec. 3, 2008

If they made two-hundred million dollars more this year than last year why can't they afford the match? Sounds like the economy has become a poor excuse to give their employees the shaft.

Anonymous | 10:44 a.m. Dec. 4, 2008

I don't beleive we have "fewer patients seeking medical help",our office is as busy as ever. Maybe
Intermountain needs to evaluate all the free charity care they give out. We have patients on Financial Aid who come to our clinic in nice expensive cars and live in big homes but can show little income on their tax returns. It is hard to see this while some of our staff work hard to make ends meet and this is the thanks we get by cutting our 401K. Yes times are tough, but how tough are they for the executives making 6 figure incomes. You don't hear what their sacrifice is.

Anonymous | 3:21 p.m. Dec. 5, 2008

As an intermountain employee, I have always been disgusted at how cheap this healthcare giant is. If you're making several billion dollars of revenue annually and you made 2 hundred million dollars more this year than you did the last, and STILL not matching 401(K)'s, then somebody on the high level of things (ie. the president) must be hiding away money somewhere for there benefit. It's not fair to those of us that actually WORK for a living and don't make hundreds of thousands of dollars. They don't have to worry! They're rich! And obviously greedy!

Classic IHC | 4:24 p.m. Jan. 14, 2009

Give your employees 1% raise, take back 3% salary, net 2% back. Pretty good economics. At least they can say they still gave raises even though everyone takes a hit. Classic IHC. Long live the evil empire.

former IHC employee | 4:16 p.m. March 27, 2009

As a former IHC employee at the Lake Park Facility ..here's a thought... get rid of about 250 of the India contractor programmers!!! Replace them with about 50 good programmers (US citizens) who need jobs. Good grief, you think you are in India when you visit the Lake Park Facility!While they are at it they can get rid of some of the long time dead wood managers that work there and save some major bucks!

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