Blue Cross losing about 2 percent of Montana workforce amid parent company’s IT restructuring
Information technology and server jobs will be included in the layoffs, said
That comes out to about 11 or 12 jobs in
"We're not releasing the number of people exactly for competitive reasons. We are not disclosing that information, but I assure you it is a very small percentage of our overall workforce," he said.
The company has about 385 people in
The layoffs are anticipated to be completed by February or March, Doran said.
The company has perhaps 10 other job openings in
The company here in
He praised the company's workforce and said decisions regarding staffing are not made lightly, noting "this is the most transformative time ever in the health insurance industry."
"And in order to meet our members' changing needs, we have to continue to adapt our business model. Our members want technology solutions that make navigating the health care system easier and that help stabilize rising costs. Our new IT approach uses more flexible ways of working with new tools, and at the same time it allows us to invest in developing our own innovative, new capabilities," Doran said. " ... As part of this effort, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate some IT roles in our infrastructure group."
Doran said basic operational tasks will be handled by the company's "external partners," though he declined to identify them. Critical strategy and design work will continue to be performed by
A
When asked how
While the Computerworld story said more than 500 people will be affected by the
He also disputed national media accounts of the
In that report, an older
Doran said "we are not targeting any age of people whatsoever." He did not have information on the ages of those in
"We're not going to release independent information about our employees," he said, noting that it would be illegal to do so.
In some instances, employees who are losing their jobs are training those who will fill the vacancies, Doran said, but he declined to discuss the Computerworld story that alleged the training is a requirement to receive severance packages or discuss what severance packages were being offered.
"I can say that we are helping these employees through the transition and there are severance packages," Doran said.
The layoffs are less about savings than setting up the business to meet and exceed the needs of the company's roughly 300,000 members in this transformative era of health care, Doran said.
The rates for health care premiums are a symptom of the problem in health care today, he said, explaining that "the reason for rising health care costs is that the cost of care continues to rise and the use of that care in
"That's why it's so imperative that we continue to focus on transforming the health care delivery system from fee-for-service to a value-based care model."
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