Blue Cross to lay off 57 in Richardson: Bikes Broker and Health Insurance Quotes Medicare

Blue Cross to lay off 57 in Richardson

Blue Cross to lay off 57 in Richardson: Joyce Tsai
Author: Individual Health Insurance

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas announced Wednesday that it will lay off 57 workers at its Richardson headquarters.

The staff reductions will take place from Oct. 2 through the end of the year and are part of a plan to adjust staff levels and trim administrative costs, the company said in a statement. Statewide, 181 positions will be cut.

“It’s part of an overall plan to trim overall costs and to tighten our belts in general,” said Margaret Jarvis, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas spokeswoman. “This is just a normal business practice due to changing business needs more than anything else,” Jarvis said, stating that the current economy was not the main reason for the staffing changes.

The move is partly the result of a decision made by the parent company, Health care Service Corp., known as HCSC, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, Jarvis said. HCSC will eliminate 650 positions, or about 4% of its work force across the four states, over the next six months due to moderated growth through 2010, she said.

HCSC is making staffing changes throughout its four-state service area “to maximize efficiencies and better the position the company to remain competitive,” the company said.

The Richardson facility is one of eight Texas locations where staffing reductions will occur, the company said. Statewide, the reductions represent about 3% of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas work force of about 5,900. Its Palestine office will be eliminated, leading to 123 job cuts, mainly involving claims and customer service positions.

“We took a real strategic look across the board and across the company to enhance and make process changes, as well as add new technologies to reduce costs,” Jarvis said.

For example, at the Palestine office where the majority of manual claims work and document imaging is performed, new technology can replace that work and save money, Jarvis said.

At the Richardson headquarters, the losses will be seen in departments that include customer service, finance, information technology, underwriting and administrative services, she said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, for its part, is experiencing record growth in its small business and individual insurance markets this year, and has increased its members by more than 135,000 as of the end of July, she said.

“We’ve done that in spite of the economic downturn,” Jarvis said, “but what we have to do is remain competitive during these challenging times, and this is expected to save some ongoing cost.”

The move also will help to position the company for what comes out of the ongoing health care reform debate, Jarvis said. Signs point to the need for “health insurers to reduce expenses no matter how it goes,” she said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is the largest provider of health benefits in the state, serving 4 million members statewide.

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Blue Cross to lay off 57 in Richardson

Category Health Insurance Quotes Medicare

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