Alameda Health System, the county’s safety net health care system that runs Highland Hospital in Oakland, will defer major layoffs that had been slated to take effect March 9, after county officials voted Tuesday to delay the cuts and form a working group to consider alternative solutions.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to create the working group, made up of two county supervisors, hospital leaders and representatives from workers’ labor unions, to address “fiscal imbalance” at the hospital system.
Alameda Health System announced in December it planned to lay off nearly 250 employees, about 4% of its workforce, due to unprecedented cuts in federal funding. Those federal cuts were spelled out in HR 1, the GOP’s sweeping 2025 spending bill, and include historic reductions to Medicaid payments to hospitals like AHS…