There will be severance pay based on years of service, but school officials declined to give details. While employees know the cuts are coming, they have not been told who will go. The next big cut will come in September, at the start of the school's fiscal year. About 50 of the 450 physicians at the medical school will be laid off, or in some cases have their salaries reduced. The school hopes its new billing system will help bring in revenues faster.
Medical billing is complicated and arcane.
And until physicians and hospitals get it absolutely right, the managed care companies won't pay them. Maximilian Buja, dean of the medical school, says UT-Houston is also working to build up referrals from primary care doctors to the specialist physicians at the school to get more revenue. But that's also a long-term solution. The school contemplated adding more primary care doctors to gain more paying patients. But UT-Houston simply did not have the money to go out and buy existing primary care medical practices.