Lovelace Health System cuts 43 administrative jobs amid rising costs

Lovelace Health System cut 43 jobs across its Albuquerque operations, trimming mostly administrative and support roles as it tries to absorb rising costs. The layoffs amount to nearly 2 percent of Lovelace’s local workforce, but the company said they are not direct patient-care positions and are not expected to change care inside its hospitals and clinics.

Whitney Wells, Lovelace’s spokesperson, said the health system is trying to keep its structure aligned with current realities and is helping affected workers move into other open positions where possible. The explanation points to pressure that reaches well beyond the bedside: reimbursement trends, regulatory requirements, labor costs and other policy changes are squeezing hospital margins even when demand for care remains strong.

For patients in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, the immediate effect should be limited. The longer-term risk is that repeated cuts to back-office staff can slow the work that keeps a health system moving, from appointment scheduling to referrals and authorization processing. If remaining administrative teams are stretched thinner, that can show up as longer waits or more friction in getting patients to the right service line.

The cuts also come as Lovelace continues to invest in care. The system, part of Ardent Health, operates Lovelace Medical Center, Heart Hospital of New Mexico at Lovelace Medical Center, New Mexico Heart Institute, Lovelace UNM Rehabilitation Hospital, Lovelace Women’s Hospital, Lovelace Westside Hospital, Lovelace Regional Hospital and Lovelace Medical Group. On April 29, 2026, Lovelace Westside Hospital said it was welcoming New Mexico Heart Institute and Lovelace Medical Group providers to its campus to expand cardiovascular care.

Ardent’s case history says the company committed more than $300 million to buy Lovelace facilities in 2002, and Lovelace says its roots go back to the Lovelace Clinic, founded in 1922. A public employee-count database listed Lovelace Health Systems at 2,704 employees in 2025, underscoring how much of the region’s health-care workforce is tied to the organization.

Lovelace’s move landed days after Presbyterian Healthcare Services said it would eliminate about 150 administrative jobs and discontinue most Medicare Advantage plans beginning in 2027, a change expected to affect about 30,000 New Mexicans. Ardent Health also said in its 2025 results that New Mexico’s state directed payment program was important to its financial performance, a reminder that hospital finances here are heavily shaped by state and federal policy decisions. For Albuquerque’s major health systems, the pressure is now as much about preserving access and capacity as it is about cutting costs.