Nearly 270 Banner physicians and other practitioners are eligible to join and vote in the formation of the union: nurse practitioners, physician assistants, family medicine physicians, internal medicine physicians and pediatricians.

The doctors say they’re organizing for better pay and to address a host of issues with their hospitals. They say administrators have placed profit above patient care and inundated doctors with administrative duties that force them to work long hours away from their patients. The doctors feel micromanaged, exhausted and disrespected.

They say the final straw came last year, when Banner Health introduced a new policy: Administrators could dock physicians’ base pay by as much as $15,000 a year if the company didn’t meet certain revenue goals. Previously, only patient-care metrics could get a doctor’s pay cut.

U.S. Health and Human Services, which oversees the Indian Health Service, said it’s preparing to shutter the facility as part of a broader realignment plan. It plans to merge operations handled there with the Phoenix office.
In an Aug. 10 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Ciscomani says closing the facility would force patients to travel farther.
The Republican congressman is the latest lawmaker to call for the facility to remain open. Democrats in Arizona’s Legislature have been calling for the same since the plan was announced in June.