To the OP!
I have felt your pain. I was working in an urgent care owned bya local community hospital that was originally one of 6 hospitals in the county. One closed, and the others were consolidated into 3 major health systems, of which 2 are now merging.
The third and biggest with 2 operating hospitals, including the regional trauma and burn centers, was initially brought in to consult with our little health system because of financial mismanagement and poor billing and documenting practices inside the hospital (as opposed to the two profit-making cost centers consisting of the nursing home and the 2 urgent care centers).
They ended up closing my satellite urgent care (which was profitable), because it wasn't profitable "enough", which was operating in the next county south (and within 15 minutes of home for me). The reason it wasn't as profitable as they had felt necessary was because it was one of two opened within 3 months of each other in the same small town, and opened second, so was less busy than they wanted it to be.
Thing is, the management had to apply in advance to the state for a certificate of need to certify that the area needed the medical services, and as a result, they knew that the other urgent care was going to open there first.
Luckily, the local hospital system that had the other urgent care had lost a PA, so I was able to start there within a few weeks of losing my urgent care job.
Within 9 months of my urgent care having closed, the health system that had shut me out by closing my health center was bought out and closed lock, stock, and barrel by the big system. Further, because the office where I had worked was now unoccupied, and had been built specifically for an urgent care center, we moved from the office we were at, and I'm back to my old digs.
Sometimes, things work out for the better.
Re: 403(b)'s and 401-k's, they are pretty much equivalent and the rules are very similar, but the biggest rule is put in as much as you can afford or as much as is allowed, regardless of the matching funds, but always put in at least as much as they will match.
For example, I still don't qualify for a match because the waiting period for my employer is 2 years.
Nonetheless, I am putting every cent I can spare into my 403(b).
Technically, I'm not contributing at all right now, because I am disabled and out of work, but as soon as I get back, I will be socking away whatever we can afford to, with the knowlege that not only is it the best chance I have of independently funding my "golden years", but every buck I put away gets subtracted from my gross pay, thereby lowering my current tax burden. Plus, depending on the plan, many allow borrowing against at least part of your account balance with most of the low interest charged being paid back into the account.
The loan option from my first 403(b) at my first PA job provided part of our down payment for our house, and because it was for the home purchase, we got 10 years to pay it back.
God bless and best of luck with whatever transition you end up having to deal with. Don't forget that the over-40's age group is a protected place (at least there are some protections in place) and retirement funding is a hot button issue for us. If they continie to try to limit your access to putting whatever money you are entitled to into your 401-K or whatever, the FBI and other feds can fix things pretty quickly.
Another previous employer was delaying payments to our retirement funds until it was convenient for their accounting system, and one pf my co-workers took offense and called the fibbies, who poste-haste came storming in and third-degreeing all the management with a final upshot of fines and some penalties being assessed, and PAID into the delinquent accounts. Not surprisingly, they were never late contributing again.
