Drew
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http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-uconn-health-discusses-budget-problems-20170611-story.html
A grim picture of UConn Health's finances was painted by the health center's CEO Monday as he told trustees that the center has faced ever-escalating losses that are projected to reach nearly $60 million next year.
"They tell me this is probably the worst financial outlook that they have seen over the last, potentially, a decade," CEO Andrew Agwunobi told members of the trustees' financial affairs committee as he presented his $1 billion budget. "I want to underscore that."
The health center has run losses since 2014, said Agwunobi, who also serves as the UConn Health executive vice president for health affairs. It's been able to reduce those projected losses substantially, but it's getting harder and harder he said, adding, "You have to go higher in the tree to get the savings."
Agwunobi said the clinical operation is presently "not financially sustainable" and that structural changes are needed to stabilize it.
He outlined a plan to drive the $59.4 million loss down to $18.4 million that includes savings through union employee concessions, but said that the steps to a more financially secure future have yet to be determined.
Both Agwunobi and UConn President Susan Herbst described the challenges of balancing their budgets at a time when the state has no budget agreement and negotiations with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition are unsettled.
"I believe this is a moment where leaders of state government will need to make some decisions about the future of the university," Herbst said as she and her staff presented plans for a $1.2 billion budget.
"Our budget has been cut so many times, and so many precious student tuition dollars go to increasing fringe [benefit] costs, that the cumulative effect will soon start to show in the worst possible ways," she said. "Cuts into financial aid, inability to buy the equipment faculty needed for research, no funds to hire more psychologists, IT professionals, police, and of course, the people who drive our academic mission – great professors."
Herbst said the tight dollars mean that next fall she is expecting a slight decrease in the number of full-time tenure-track professors.
She said leaders of state government will have to decide: "Would they like to keep our high ranking and our excellence, which unfortunately does demand funding ... Or are we going to sit around and be witnesses as dramatic slippage begins."
A grim picture of UConn Health's finances was painted by the health center's CEO Monday as he told trustees that the center has faced ever-escalating losses that are projected to reach nearly $60 million next year.
"They tell me this is probably the worst financial outlook that they have seen over the last, potentially, a decade," CEO Andrew Agwunobi told members of the trustees' financial affairs committee as he presented his $1 billion budget. "I want to underscore that."
The health center has run losses since 2014, said Agwunobi, who also serves as the UConn Health executive vice president for health affairs. It's been able to reduce those projected losses substantially, but it's getting harder and harder he said, adding, "You have to go higher in the tree to get the savings."
Agwunobi said the clinical operation is presently "not financially sustainable" and that structural changes are needed to stabilize it.
He outlined a plan to drive the $59.4 million loss down to $18.4 million that includes savings through union employee concessions, but said that the steps to a more financially secure future have yet to be determined.
Both Agwunobi and UConn President Susan Herbst described the challenges of balancing their budgets at a time when the state has no budget agreement and negotiations with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition are unsettled.
"I believe this is a moment where leaders of state government will need to make some decisions about the future of the university," Herbst said as she and her staff presented plans for a $1.2 billion budget.
"Our budget has been cut so many times, and so many precious student tuition dollars go to increasing fringe [benefit] costs, that the cumulative effect will soon start to show in the worst possible ways," she said. "Cuts into financial aid, inability to buy the equipment faculty needed for research, no funds to hire more psychologists, IT professionals, police, and of course, the people who drive our academic mission – great professors."
Herbst said the tight dollars mean that next fall she is expecting a slight decrease in the number of full-time tenure-track professors.
She said leaders of state government will have to decide: "Would they like to keep our high ranking and our excellence, which unfortunately does demand funding ... Or are we going to sit around and be witnesses as dramatic slippage begins."