What we changed on September 2nd, what it saves, what it costs us to do, and the one thing I need you to vote on today.
Board of directors. Every figure comes from the board-approved FY26 budget, our payroll file, and our own revenue model. Anything not yet final is flagged on the slide it appears on.
Why any of this
If we do nothing, three of the four disappear and only one is left. The cuts are sized to steady the organization in about 60 days. That tells us where we will be at 90 days while we still have 30 days to change course.
Where we are
What we received in grants last year, and what we will receive this year. Four separate grants ended, not one.
How much more we spend each month than we bring in, once those grants are gone.
How much of our money comes from grants today, and where this plan takes it. Another year at 70 percent would end us.
Most grant money passes straight through to the cost it pays for. So losing a grant dollar only costs us about ten cents of overhead, as long as the spending stops too. What hurts is grant-funded spending we keep paying after the grant is gone.
Cash
This slide shows every payday between now and November 30th, and how much we expect to have in the bank going into each one. The figures come from our accountant.
What changed
Ten jobs ended, across seven departments. Two consultants had already finished before this. Some services merged.
A plan written by the leadership team. Every psychiatry client now has a named person on the clinical team responsible for them.
The only item that needs your vote. I am asking for it before September 2nd so it lands with everything else.
Spreading them out would mean staff spend three weeks waiting for the next piece of bad news, and that costs us more than the changes themselves. The job cuts happened on one day and are finished. The service changes take months to work through.
The savings
I gave them a preliminary list. They came back with a revised one worth $78,794 more.
| Annual salary, 10 positions | $623,348 |
| Fringe at 25 percent | 155,837 |
| Gross value of the revised list | $779,185 |
| Less: three eliminations that are conditional | (261,723) |
| Less: posts funded by grants that are themselves ending | not yet answered |
| Firm today | $517,462 |
I am not going to give you $779,185 as the saving, because I cannot stand behind it yet. Three of the ten are conditional and I do not know how many are grant funded. The honest range is $430,000 to $779,000, and it closes when three questions get answered.
Two things the team fixed on their own: they took out our highest-billing therapist, and they took out a post that was entirely grant funded and would have saved us nothing. Both were on my list.
What it costs to do
Vacation owed at separation is $20,142.77. That part is settled, with hours per person. Severance, notice pay and unemployment insurance are not costed yet, and the remainder can still move our December 1st cash by as much as $200,000.
Revenue
One of our own documents says we collect under 60 percent of what we bill. Erin, who runs billing, says 99 percent of our claims get paid and only 1 percent are denied. Both can be true. The 60 percent is probably the normal gap between our list price and what insurers have agreed to pay, which every provider has.
If that is right, our problem is not chasing payments. It is that we never billed for the work at all. We think we bill for somewhere between a third and a half of what we could, which is more money than every job cut in this plan put together. Getting a straight answer on this matters more than anything else on my list.
Six things nobody has worked on: clinicians who are not credentialed and so cannot be billed for at all, a no-show policy with real consequences, running more groups instead of one-to-one sessions, collecting copays at the desk, tracking insurance pre-approvals, and applying the sliding scale the same way every time.
Expenses
| Insurance re-bid | $179,215 | 30 days |
| Space consolidation, underused site | $120,000 | 60 to 90 days |
| Janitorial | $65,000 | 30 days |
| Recruitment | $56,000 | this week |
| Subscriptions and software | $54,000 | this week |
| Computer and technology | $54,000 | 30 days |
| Audit, telecoms, promotional and meals | $95,133 | mixed |
$933,500 is what comes off the budget. The cash we actually free up this year is closer to $444,250, because most of these are annual contracts we can only get out of at renewal. I would rather give you the smaller, real number.
Service integration
14 percent do not turn up and another 20 percent cancel. An empty appointment costs us the same as a full one.
What the psychiatry service loses every year, worked out line by line from our own figures.
Every psychiatry client now has a named person on the clinical team, not the psychiatrist, keeping track of whether they are showing up, taking their medication, and getting better or worse between appointments. That person does not have to be a therapist. Case management and community support count, and none of those roles is on the staffing list at all.
A correction I want to make to you directly. Our stabilization plan told you psychiatry no-shows run at 60 percent. That is wrong. It is 14 percent not turning up plus 20 percent canceling.
The vote
Everything else I have shown you is reported to you and is mine to be accountable for. This one needs a vote because it changes the terms of employment for every member of staff.
| Years of service | Today | Proposed | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 15 days | 10 days | −5 |
| 3 | 20 days | 15 days | −5 |
| 4 to 5 | 25 days | 15 days | −10 |
| 6 and above | 25 days | 20 days | −5 |
This saves nothing on payroll. Salaried staff get paid the same whether they take leave or not. What it is worth is $64,000 to $85,000, and that is a smaller unused-leave liability and smaller payouts when people leave. I have taken out a "freed-up clinician hours" figure that would have made this look bigger. Several of our clinicians cannot fill the days they already have, so I do not believe it and will not put it in front of you.
Every full-time employee loses at least a week, and years four and five lose two. Our lawyer is checking two things: Illinois usually does not let employers take back vacation already earned, and state law may require part-time sick time.
What could still go wrong
| Risk | What happens if it lands |
|---|---|
| Half of what the ten cost us | Vacation is settled at $20,142.77. Severance, notice and unemployment are not, and can move December 1st cash by $200,000 |
| Three of the ten are conditional | $261,723 depends on three unanswered questions, including whether the state lets one supervisor post sit vacant |
| We do not know how we are paid | On a flat rate per client, the new service plan costs money instead of earning it |
| Clinical hours | The new service plan needs a reassessment for every client every 180 days, with fewer staff |
| Compliance lead on maternity leave | Cover arranged. Do not plan around that role being available |
| The merger option got thinner | The partner furthest along voted no on August 20th. This plan works without them |
What could still go wrong
What I need
One thing to hold. No employee names appear in anything you have been sent, and none should appear in a reply. These people should hear it from us, not from a neighbor.
Sixty days after the changes, and thirty days before the deadline, we will know whether Arukah can keep going on its own. I would rather bring you a hard answer early than a hopeful one late.
Every number that is not final yet is listed in section 13 of the written plan, with the name of the person getting it. If a number here looks wrong to you, start there.