Asante will lay off at least 300 employees in the coming months as hospital leadership cites budget troubles.
In a memo released this week, Asante CEO Tom Gessel said the hospital system lost $16 million during the first half of the fiscal year. Without changes, Gessel said the deficit is expected to balloon to $50 million in 2027.
Asante cut 400 employees from its 6,000-person workforce in 2024. But Gessel said the health care environment has only worsened since then.
He cited rising personnel and supply costs as well as low reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare recipients. More than 75% of Asante patients are covered by the public insurance programs, while the share of patients using private insurance has fallen to an all-time low, according to Gessel.
He said that almost half of the hospital’s losses this year come from Asante Ashland Community Hospital. Asante recently announced plans to cut that facility’s inpatient and birthing services, transitioning the hospital to a campus of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.
In 2025, the Ashland hospital posted a profit of nearly $8 million. Asante has not yet reported this year’s financial figures. The hospital did not respond to a request for clarification about the financial situation in Ashland.
Gessel also blamed Oregon’s safe staffing laws, which have cost Asante nearly a million dollars in fines.
“We agree with minimum staffing ratios,” Gessel said. “We disagree with [Oregon Health Authority's] interpretation of the law, whereby ratios are now ignored and replaced with mandated 'staffing plans' that all parties must approve, that any party can unilaterally reject, but only one party — the hospitals — pay fines for not having them.”
The Oregon Nurses Association said Asante executives are responsible for the hospital’s financial woes.
“It's egregious for Asante executives to rack up nearly a million dollars in fines for failing to follow a staffing law designed to keep patients safe — and then turn around and blame the law and the frontline caregivers fighting to uphold it,” the union said in a statement.
Asante's memo did not mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits the hospital system has faced over a former nurse accused of deadly drug diversion. The hospital has settled many of those cases for undisclosed amounts as the nurse's criminal trial proceeds.
But a FAQ on Asante's website said the case is "unrelated" to the hospital system's financial challenges and staffing decisions.
Last month, Asante requested an emergency exemption from the state’s Health Care Market Oversight program for the purchase of the Surgery Center of Southern Oregon.
