{"id":352526,"date":"2025-12-16T18:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352526\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:05:14","slug":"nurses-who-retired-from-kalamazoo-hospital-will-lose-health-care-benefits-dec-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352526\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurses who retired from Kalamazoo hospital will lose health care benefits Dec. 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

KALAMAZOO, MI — Hundreds of nurses who retired from Beacon Kalamazoo, formerly Borgess Hospital, will be losing their health care benefits on Dec. 31. <\/p>\n

The hospital\u2019s former owners, Ascension, informed former nurses in August they would stop the benefits on Dec. 31. <\/p>\n

As the deadline approaches, former nurses are looking to Beacon Health System for a solution. Without the payments, retirees will have to pay hundreds to thousands more each year, a press release<\/a> from the Michigan Nurses Association said. <\/p>\n

Beacon Health System purchased<\/a> four hospitals, 35 outpatient clinics and an ambulatory surgery center from Ascension in July, including Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo. <\/p>\n

Retired nurses were informed in August payments from the MediGap Reimbursement Retiree Plan would stop in December. Ascension cited the sale to Beacon as reason why it is discontinuing the payments, in a letter sent to the nurses obtained by MLive\/Kalamazoo Gazette. <\/p>\n

The MediGap Plan wasn\u2019t included in the sale to Beacon, said Heidi Prescott, senior media relations strategist for Beacon. Obligation to pay out the retirement plans still falls to Ascension, Prescott said. Nurses who will be impacted have been directed to contact Ascension. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize and appreciate the decades of service provided by our retired nurses, understand the concerns raised in recent reports and acknowledge that after an acquisition, benefit transitions can be difficult to navigate,\u201d Prescott said. <\/p>\n

A representative for Ascension couldn\u2019t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Ascension Borgess Hospital had been reimbursing health care costs for nurses who retired before 2016 through the Borgess MediGap Reimbursement Retiree Plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cI assumed that it would just be carried over (to Beacon),\u201d said Lynn Crutcher, who retired from the hospital in 1993. <\/p>\n

Crutcher didn\u2019t find out Beacon wouldn\u2019t be assuming the payments until she spoke with other retired nurses who had contacted Beacon. <\/p>\n

Crutcher said the Michigan Nurses Association was working with Beacon to find a solution. A press release from MNA said Beacon refused to release a list of impacted retirees, but MNA believes the number is \u201cin the hundreds.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for MNA declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

When Crutcher started receiving the payments in 1993, Borgess Hospital wasn\u2019t owned by Ascension. Ascension continued the retirement payments when the company purchased Borgess Hospital in 1999, Crutcher said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI gave 38 years to the hospital, taking care of other families, sometimes leaving sick babies at home to go to work,\u201d Crutcher said. <\/p>\n

Crutcher\u2019s primary form of income is social security payments, she said. Continuing on the MediGap insurance plan would cost an additional $2,700 next year \u2014 roughly the equivalent of one full month of social security, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I\u2019ve earned this benefit,\u201d Crutcher said. \u201cTaking away this health care coverage is a slap in the face and a financial burden that many of us seniors will have a hard time absorbing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KALAMAZOO, MI — Hundreds of nurses who retired from Beacon Kalamazoo, formerly Borgess Hospital, will be losing their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-352526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}