Mass General Brigham Announces Mass Layoffs for Administrative Employees

Mass General Brigham announced layoffs for hundreds of administrative and management employees on Monday in anticipation of a $250 million budget gap, an unprecedented decision for Massachusetts’ largest private employer.

The layoffs — which began Monday and will continue until March 14 — will be “focused on non-clinical and non-patient facing roles,” according to an email sent to employees by MGB chief executive Anne Klibanski on Monday morning.

Department of Medicine chairs Bruce D. Levy and Jose C. Florez explained in a separate email to the department that the decision was made to address a major financial deficit.

“We have not been able to meet our budget goals for several years, and entered fiscal year 2025 with a substantial loss in operations,” they wrote in a Monday email obtained by The Crimson. “We must balance our operating budget, and consequently we have had to examine the configuration of our administrative workforce and benchmark it against industry standards.”

MGB, which has more than 82,000 employees, reported an overall gain of $2 billion and a $72 million loss in operations in 2024. An internal document from the hospital system cited operational inefficiencies — including “duplicative processes and too many administrative layers” — as part of the “unprecedented and unrelenting pressures” it currently faces.

The company is aiming to save around 2 percent of its salary and benefits costs, adding up to $200 million annually, according to the Boston Globe. By reducing redundancies in administrative and managerial positions, the hospital hopes to cover the $250 million shortfall and shrink bureaucracy.

MGB spokesperson Jennifer Street wrote in an emailed statement that the decision “is necessary despite years of diligently promoting a culture of responsible resource stewardship and developing initiatives that generate diversified sources of revenue.”

According to third-year internal medicine resident William J.H. Ford, the administration has not clarified which specific roles will be subject to termination, making it difficult for clinical staff to gauge how they will be impacted.

“There’s a fuzzy line between what is a clinical or patient-facing role and what roles are really crucial to supporting the clinical work versus what is really tangentially related or extraneous to the work of the hospital,” Ford said.

“Are there people who work in my primary care clinic — who make it easier for me to care for my patients, who make it easier for people to schedule appointments, get prior authorizations for medications approved through their insurance — are these people going to lose their jobs?” he added.

The announcement comes on the heels of a dramatic funding saga for the National Institute of Health.

After the Trump Administration announced an NIH directive on Friday that capped indirect costs at 15 percent, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the order from going into effect in Massachusetts on Monday. But the proposal, which would strip hospitals and universities of substantial research funding, unleashed panic at Harvard and MGB.

In their Monday email, Levy and Florez said the financial stress stems from a flawed healthcare funding model and slammed the “new threat” from the Trump administration.

“It will take some time for any federal changes to be implemented, due to the rulemaking process and anticipated legal challenges, but we understand how distressing it can be to speculate on what changes the future may bring,” Levy and Florez wrote.

“Our hospitals and our nation have faced serious challenges before, and we have always emerged to continue our foundational mission in the service of our fellow human beings,” they added. “Our success did not evade sacrifice and required generosity and a shared sense of purpose.”

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.