Fort Wayne-based Orthopaedics Northeast has eliminated 26 jobs in anticipation of further reductions in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, ONE Chief Executive Officer Raymond Kusisto said.

The job cuts represented a 6-percent decrease in the ONE work force, which now numbers 393 employees.

Kusisto said the cuts involved a variety of personnel, including supervisors, nurses and accounting staff. No physicians were eliminated.

Kusisto said it is expected that already-low Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements will be reduced 6 to 30 percent in 2011 under health reform.

"This kind of thing (job cuts) is happening across America," he said. "You have to get leaner when your prices are going down. We're like farmers. We're price takers not price makers. We get paid what the payers tell us they're going to pay us."

Kusisto said severance packages given departing workers will result in virtually no savings until 2011.

"This is really about 2011. It's not about 2010. We're just responding prudently to it. Six percent is not a lot. If they (federal officials) come back and cut us 30 percent, we're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

ONE offers a variety of services, including: treatments for arthritis, neck and back pain, and sports injuries; cartilage restoration; and joint replacement, spine and bone surgery.