Seton: Uninsured partly led to job cuts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Kaylynn Becker, 8, and her grandmother, Paige Farber, found themselves in need of immunizations and a way to pay for the medical bill.

"So she can be healthy and grow up strong," said Farber.

Farber is underinsured and regularly uses the services offered by one of Seton's three community health centers.

"Because otherwise, we wouldn't have anywhere to go.” she added.

Since Supervisor Crystal Chavarria started at Seton Topfer three years ago, she has seen the number of under and uninsured patients go up sharply. Lately, it's been at least 600 a month.

"Regardless or not of whether you have the money to be cared for, we care for you anyway," Chavarria explained.

As Seton continues to stick to that mission, it is facing a major budget crunch that is forcing officials to lay off 120 workers.

"Just basically, we have to roll with the punches and live day by day, basically," said Chavarria.

Seton Family of Hospitals officials said restructuring their workforce to bring many of the laid off workers back into roles directly affecting patients will help bring in money, but the number of patients who cannot pay continues to rise. Texas currently ranks first among all other states for uninsured people.

"At the same time though, we've got to deal with the fact that a lot of them are never going to be able to pay their entire bill or have insurance to pay the bill," said Seton President and CEO Greg Hartman.

Chavarria said his staff is just waiting for next week when word of the layoffs comes down but is continuing to help those in need right now.

"I mean, there's not really much we can do but be able to serve what we can, basically do what we can," she said.

Seton said after the layoffs, it will open up about 200 new jobs, and many of the workers cut will be able to slide into those roles. There will be an internal job fair in the next few weeks, though an official date hasn't been set.