The State of Healthcare in Long Beach: What’s Next for Jobs and Services?

Jon LeSage

What’s it like to be a healthcare employee in Long Beach these days? Well, that depends on whether you provide medical services in a hospital or clinic, or if you’re part of managing medical insurance services.

Workers at private health care facilities just saw the city unanimously vote in a $25 minimum wage earlier this month.

For those working at the city’s largest healthcare service provider, managed care company Molina Healthcare, you won’t have to worry about traffic getting you late to work in downtown Long Beach. That’s because you’ll continue working from home – whether that be in Long Beach or somewhere else – which became the norm during COVID-19. That policy will continue being the norm, which means most of the company’s offices will be shut down, Molina Healthcare executives told stakeholders recently.

Healthcare is a major employer and service provider in Long Beach, perhaps the largest of them all. It’s right up there with the Port, dockworkers and trucking, aerospace, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach Unified School District and City of Long Beach employees.

Molina Healthcare and MemorialCare are the largest healthcare service providers and employers in the city, but they’re not the only ones. Blue Shield will soon be a major player, as the chart on this next page shows.

Boomers Demand Good Healthcare

What’s behind all of this? The union representing workers at private health care facilities wants a “fair wage ordinance” to treat workers better who’ve been pushed hard uring COVID-19. As for the growing presence of healthcare jobs in the city, and across the country, that has a lot to do with growing demand.

An aging American population needing more medical services will be part of the overall growth and strength of the segment, as baby boomers turn 70 and older – and expect better service and treatment than their parents did. Americans are tending to live a few years longer than their predecessors. Companies like Molina Healthcare and SCAN Health Plan, with a strong presence in Medicare and Medicaid, are poised to do particularly well.

If Community Hospital does close down soon, that would take out about 600 employees from these numbers. Emergency and acute care services were closed late last year, and the latest outlook on the iconic hospital has been bleak. It’s future continues to hold a brooding presence – similar to what may be happening to the Queen Mary.

That loss will be probably be more than offset by growth from other healthcare employers in Long Beach and beyond. Employment in healthcare occupations is expected to grow 16 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.6 million new jobs in this country. That comes from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Healthcare occupations are projected to add more jobs than any of the other occupational groups.

The federal report says that the projected growth is mainly due to an aging American population, leading to greater demand for healthcare services.

What Happened in City Hall

Employers will have to raise pay for those healthcare workers below the $25 minimum wage after the Long Beach City Council voted 9-0 in favor of it during its Tuesday, Aug. 2, meeting. The city will become the fourth in Los Angeles County to pass a “fair wage ordinance” for part of its healthcare workforce. It had been pushed forward by the SEIU United Healthcare Workers union, and it could have been part of the November ballot.

Those qualifying are employees working in integrated health care delivery services at private health care facilities in the city. So, yes for MemorialCare and St. Mary’s employees and no for VA Hospital employees. These private health care facility employees include clinicians, nursing assistants, janitors, pharmacists and laundry workers. The SEIU-UWH union intended for it to be decided by voters on the Nov. 8 election, but the city council decided to act on it.

They work at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, Dignity Health – St. Mary’s Medical Center, their satellite offices, and other medical facilities that include acute psychiatric hospitals and dialysis clinics.

Not all healthcare employees in the city qualify. The Healthcare sector is made up of hospitals and clinics, managed care companies and doctor’s and medical specialist’s offices. Jobs in the healthcare field can include doctors, registered nurses, medical assistants, case managers, analysts, department managers, nurse practitioners, counselors, hospice care workers, diagnostic imaging technicians, administrators, program directors and more.

Long Beach isn’t the only one seeing job growth from this sector, as healthcare services continue to boom around the country.

The numbers will be getting larger soon in Long Beach as major medical insurance provider Blue Shield of California moves forward on its building construction project next to the airport. The company recently leased over 71,000 square feet of office space at 3840 Kilroy Airport Way – where it expects to bring in about 1,000 employees.

Molina Healthcare Dominant in Downtown

Molina Healthcare has yet to respond to a request for more information on its local size – and how its announcement that it will permanently shift over to remote work will affect Long Beach. The Fortune 500 publicly traded company recently told shareholders that it’s been the norm for the company since Covid-19 hit – and it will continue.

That will mean cutting out about two-thirds of its real estate, which would be a huge cost savings for the managed healthcare company.

The 9,500 employee estimate comes from the sizable presence that Molina holds in the downtown, and previous media coverage and company statements. The company reported a total of 14,000 employees in 2021, and has large offices in New York City, Troy, Mich., Pomona, Calif. and Albuquerque, N.M. Molina provides coverage to 5.1 million members in 19 states.

As for downtown Long Beach, there seems to be a sizable group of Molina employees. While the Molina Center headquarters is significant at the 200 and 300 Oceangate buildings, there are other large company offices in the downtown area. About 400 of the company’s employees moved over to a new office in San Pedro during 2017. Prior to that the number had been around 10,000 Molina employees in Long Beach, hence the 9,500 total in the chart.

Long Beach may very well see more downsizing in its office space. GEICO Insurance and the Spotify music application just spoke to job cuts and that remote workers will continue being the norm. Many of these jobs are in California.

Stop By and See the Growing VA Medical Center

If you’re looking for another impressive presence of healthcare in Long Beach, go visit the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center, which shares land next to CSULB. The Veteran Affairs healthcare system has been building out consistently in recent years, adding more offices for testing centers and treatment – some of it serving veterans severely injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The VA has aimed services at veterans, their families and caregivers. The Long Beach VA medical center now provides primary care and specialty health services, including cardiology, mental health care, treatment for spinal cord injuries and disorders, suicide prevention, women’s health services and more. Veterans can access comprehensive inpatient, outpatient and extended care programs.

You can track the sizable number of construction projects at https://www.va.gov/long-beach-health-care/programs/construction-updates/ that includes mental health services, a community living center, a parking garage, athletic field and other projects. Many of the projects are expected to be completed during 2023 and 2024.

Jon LeSage is a resident of Long Beach and a veteran business media reporter and editor. You can reach him at jtlesage1@yahoo.com.

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