MultiCare Shortchanges Patient Care By Holding $2 Billion in Publicly Traded Securities
Federal Way, Wash., June 16, 2023 – Providers at one of the largest Urgent Care Clinics in Washington are a step closer to a picket and going on strike.
In a unanimous vote, doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants voiced “No Confidence” in Bill Robertson, CEO of Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System, on grounds the $6 billion nonprofit network is investing millions on Wall Street rather than improving workplace conditions for about 100 providers at clinics across the Puget Sound Region.
Dr. Stuart Bussey, president of the Union of American Physicians & Dentists, representing the providers, called MultiCare’s executives “greedy and motivated to make money above all else.”
Providers are struggling to deliver care while meeting the network’s limit of 15 minutes per patient. In addition, providers are asking MultiCare to guarantee them time for bathroom and lunch breaks during their 12-hour shifts.
Providers have been bargaining with MultiCare for seven months with little progress on key provider demands, including a cost-of-living adjustment.
Instead of investing in its providers and patients, the nonprofit is speculating on Wall Street, buying land, and raising executive salaries, according to the network’s most recent public disclosures.
MultiCare’s total assets have skyrocketed between 2013 and 2021. According to tax returns in 2013, the organization owned just shy of $3 billion in assets – land, equipment, investments, and cash among other things. (1)
By 2021, this number had almost doubled to over $5.9 billion. (2)
The health nonprofit has been purchasing things as opposed to compensating their staff more. Much of this increase in assets has come in the form of financial investments. According to their own tax returns, by the end of 2021 the company held over $2 billion just in publicly traded securities and an additional half billion dollars in ‘other securities’– more than it owns in land after accounting for depreciation. (3)
This amount roughly doubled since 2013. (4)
It is unclear what hedge funds or private equity projects MultiCare is underwriting. As of 2021, over $132 million was invested with hedge funds and an additional $383 million with private equity firms. (5)
While MultiCare has refused to disclose where this money has been invested, they revealed in their 2021 audit that 35% of the amount was invested in private equity in developed markets, 20% as venture capital in developed markets, and 45% in emerging markets. (6)
MultiCare acknowledges that these assets are permanently tied down in this speculative activity.
(1) MultiCare 2013 IRS Form 990 pg. 11.
(2) MultiCare 2021 IRS Form 990 pg. 11.
(3) MultiCare 2021 IRS Form 990 pg. 11.
(4) MultiCare 2013 IRS Form 990 pg. 11.
(5) MultiCare 2021 IRS Form 990 Schedule D pg. 3.
(6) MultiCare Health System Independent Auditor Report, 2021 pg. 23.
Contact Information:
Vivi Le, Communications Manager, vivi.le@uapd.com