Meridian Health Services, which offers medical and behavioral health care, has dissolved eight positions in Wayne County and a few more in surrounding communities, but is keeping facilities open.
Meridian operates school medical clinics at Richmond High and Test Intermediate in Richmond plus Union City and Union (Modoc). It also sends behavioral health staff into several area schools.
Meridian offers behavior health care for all ages at 520 S. Ninth St. and medical care at 2300 Chester Blvd. in Richmond.
Lisa Suttle, regional vice president of operations, said all those programs will continue as cuts were evenly spread statewide, and the affected positions included administration and providers.
She said more of the cuts were administrative positions because Meridian has begun sharing support staff across multiple services.
Nearby, Meridian also cut a couple of jobs in Fayette County and one each in Randolph County and Rushville. Employees learned of the cuts July 6 and can apply for other Meridian positions or receive severance.
Meridian leaders looked at staffing needs over the last several months before making the cuts, which Suttle acknowledged are never easy.
“I think organizations just really are having to take a look at their operations and how we can best serve populations and we definitely took that step,” Suttle said.
Despite job cuts happening shortly before school starts, Suttle said children’s services should resume in those buildings as usual. She said they reviewed the acuity and numbers of school clients, and worked with school districts directly on staffing to ensure coverage. Meridian continues partnering with fellow nonprofit Centerstone to serve schools.
Meridian’s Fit Fair programs continued after the cuts. More than 540 kids and parents attended the July 24 event at Richmond High School where medical and dental exams and school supplies were offered.
Suttle said the changes were not prompted by Anthem announcing it would end its contract with Meridian for Medicaid patients. Anthem’s change was to take effect July 25, but the insurer extended the contract through Aug. 24, per Meridian’s website.
A version of this article appeared in the August 5 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
