North Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner Corporation, information technology company operating in the healthcare sector, has announced that it will be laying off 180 employees as a result of a rift in their partnership with Adventist Health. 163 Cerner employees located at Adventist Health in Bakersfield, California and 25 employees located at Adventist Health in Tehachapi, California are scheduled to be laid off in December, 2019 after the formal end to the partnership in November, 2019. Most of the positions relate to Adventist’s revenue processing function and include patient access representatives, medical coders, health information retrieval technicians, specialists, and supervisors.
According to an Adventist Health spokesperson, “Adventist Health will be transitioning all revenue cycle operations from Cerner to Huron effective November 4, 2019 to best meet the timely needs of our patients and the communities we serve. This transition is the result of our commitment to being good stewards of our mission and values. Cerner will remain as Adventist Health’s partner for the electronic medical record and integrated revenue cycle solutions and will continue to support care transformation functions.”
Adventist Health previously transferred 275 jobs, 190 in IT and 85 in revenue processing and management, from its headquarters location in Roseville, California to Cerner Corporation in January 2018. At that time, employees were provided with a warning about future job stability. According to Adventist President Bill Wing, “In the short term, nothing changes. What it means over time is harder to predict. We’ll continue to innovate and they’ll continue to need to manage that innovation. While Cerner is expected to retain all 275 jobs long term, the nature of these jobs may change as the partnership evolves.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?