- Target:
- Rochester Regional Health Board of Directors
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- www.runap.org
Rochester Regional Health has just announced severe cuts to employees' health insurance benefits. While unionized nurses are insulated from some of the changes due to their union contract and protections, non-union staff (the majority of employees) currently lack all such protections.
These cuts include:
* The elimination of the low-premium CDHP Plus health insurance plan.
* The introduction of an extreme "band" structure for employees not protected by a union contract.
* Significant increases in out-of-pocket and out-of-network costs.
Prior to these changes, health insurance at RRH already cost far too much and covered far too little compared to competitors in the region, including the University of Rochester and, especially, facilities in Buffalo and Syracuse where higher percentages of staff are unionized and have been able to demand better coverage at lower costs. RRH leadership should be exploring ways to improve our benefits, not make them worse.
The email cancelling the CDHP Plus plan characterized it as a $12 million "loss" for the system. However, when CEO Chip Davis announced the CDHP Plus plan on October 19, 2022, he wrote "Rochester Regional will be investing an additional $11 million" to create the plan. In a period of time when the system's net worth has risen by hundreds of millions of dollars, this recharacterization of employee benefits from an "$11 million investment" to a "$12 million loss" is unacceptable. If it is allowed to go through, this change will result in some of our lowest paid coworkers seeing their premiums increase 10x. We cannot staff the hospital on poverty wages.
The "band" structure and other changes being introduced for the CDHP and Copay plans are unacceptable and will lead to disastrous consequences, including:
* Non-union employees making $80,000/year will pay between $2,900 and $5,200 more per year for a family plan than non-union employees making $79,999/year, creating hard cliffs at each pay band where a raise could actually cost someone thousands.
* Financial burdens will worsen for employees already struggling with high deductibles, high out-of-pocket maximums, and limited in-network coverage, especially those needing specialists not available at RRH.
* Seeing their premiums rise by up to 50x, many physicians will effectively be receiving no healthcare benefits, as these plans will be a loss vs independently purchasing health insurance or going without insurance entirely.
Together, the impact of these cuts will be that our coworkers will suffer and already unacceptable rates of staff turnover and vacancy will worsen across the board. Our hospitals and clinics will work increasingly short, and patient care will suffer. The fact that, only one week after RRH admitted to owing a $100,000 fine for understaffing Registered Nurses at Rochester General Hospital, the system would decide to potentially worsen retention for every other group is outrageous.
ATTN: Rochester Regional Health (RRH) Board of Directors
We, the undersigned system-wide staff, hereby protest the severe cuts to our healthcare benefits announced on November 5, 2025, and demand their complete reversal along with a guarantee that there will be no attempt to implement them again in the future.
From the bedside to essential support functions throughout the system, RRH's workers put patient care first in serving our community. We expect leadership that does the same, and in this we have been failed.
We are addressing the Board of Directors because we have lost confidence in CEO Chip Davis and upper administration. If this is how he values his staff, we do not see how he can continue in the role. We know you all to be prominent members of the Rochester community, and we call on you to take swift action to protect our community by making sure our staff can continue to care for patients at our hospitals, clinics, and other facilities.
A "pause" is not enough. We need a full guarantee that this will not be attempted again in the future and that you will work with staff to improve benefits, not worsen them, so we can properly staff our hospitals and other facilities and care for our community.
We are committed to taking action for our coworkers, and we are joining our voices in this demand.
(This petition constitutes protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act and all non-managerial staff members’ right to sign and distribute it free from retaliation is therefore guaranteed by federal law. The Rochester Union of Nurses & Allied Professionals has offered its legal counsel free of charge to any RRH worker, union or non-union, who feels these rights have been infringed.)
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The RRH Staff Deserve Decent Healthcare! petition to Rochester Regional Health Board of Directors was written by RUNAP and is in the category Employment at GoPetition.