Benefits cut...

[Wifey]

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I'm posting under my wife's screen name to remain anonymous.

I will be entering intern year in EM this year and just received my contract from my future employer. After reading through the contract, it seems like a lot of benefits were cut from when we interviewed to now. We will now have to pay premiums on health insurance for spouse and family (previously covered completely) and have lost our PDA allowance, cell phone allowance, some travel allowances, and several other things. The most costly of these cuts will be to the health insurance, and will likely cost an additional 2-3K per year.
It turns out that the decision to make these cuts was made in late January, well before our rank lists were due. While I am not sure that this would have changed my decision to rank this place highly, it would have given me pause. One of the best things about this location was the way it treated its residents, and an excellent benefits package was a part of that.
Long and short of it is that I feel like a bait-and-switch was pulled on us. We were never told that the benefits package was changing, and in fact their website still says that all insurance premiums are paid. I understand there is little that can be done, I just wanted to see if anyone else is in the same boat, or if anyone has any ideas about how best to handle this.
Thanks as always

 

[southerndoc]

Perhaps you didn't hear about how bad our economy was. Just kidding.

Seriously, healthcare is not immune from recessions, and this is one of the downfalls. Nearly all residency programs have cut benefits -- from making residents pay for health insurance to eliminating employer matches for retirement accounts.

 

[gutonc]

This was probably a decision made at the GME/institutional level and there's likely very little that you can do about it other than stew. It would have been nice if you'd known before rank list time but would it really have changed your list any? What if they kept it the same this year and changed it next year? Would you quit? Didn't think so.

You just have to suck it up. There are probably a few hundred other folks in your shoes at your institution and a few thousand around the country. It sucks but it's life. It's happening in the real world too. At least they didn't close the program.

 

[Drawing Dead]

This is going on at the program I ranked #2 last year. They have to pay their health insurance premiums, and some residents (including EM residents working with a high number of HIV and hepatitis C patients) have chosen to not pay for it and not have insurance. It has gotten to the point where the residents are trying to form a union, and meeting opposition from the hospital brass.

My program has to revise our stipend and what it can be used for, because Uncle Sam came in this year and was questioning why it was paying for certain things (for example, smart phones). It may be changed so that it is strictly books and 100% educational materials. Glad I got my iPhone while I could.