Blue Cross of Louisiana plans tech upgrades, ends remote work as it looks past Elevance deal

Advocate, The (Baton Rouge, LA)

Apr. 11—Two months after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana shelved a plan to sell itself to Elevance Health, the Baton Rouge-based insurer told its 3,000 employees that it is launching several initiatives that will require them to return to the office after four years of remote work.

In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Blue Cross Chief Operating Officer Brian Camerlink said the company is "charting a new course" in order to better serve its customers and remain competitive. And Blue Cross is planning to roll out the EPIC electronic health platform; invest in its Medicare products and upgrade its mobile app. It will also place greater emphasis on its diversity and inclusion efforts.

Those changes will require "all hands on deck with renewed levels of connection and engagement," said Camerlink, who co-wrote the memo with Chief Human Resources Officer Sherri Enright.

The memo is the first indication of how Blue Cross, which dominates the health insurance market in Louisiana and has some 1.9 million customers, is planning to move forward in the wake of its failed $2.5 billion Elevance deal. Blue Cross officials tabled their plans to sell to Elevance amid opposition from policyholders, doctors groups and elected officials over what for-profit ownership of the state's largest insurer would do to insurance premiums and access to doctors and hospitals, among other things.

Blue Cross CEO Dr. Steve Udvarhelyi, the mastermind behind the failed deal, had argued that the company needed to sell to Elevance so it could better compete against large insurers by operating more efficiently and offering pricey platforms like Epic and better digital tools.

Now, it appears Blue Cross is planning to provide those services on its own.

The memo does not detail when the company will launch the new initiatives, but it says the return to the office will begin gradually this summer and become effective in September.

Some employees will be able to work remotely one or two days per week but should plan to spend most of their time in the office. Those who refuse to do so could be terminated, the memo says.

Blue Cross spokesperson Cindy Wakefield said in a prepared statement that the policy began in March 2020 and was mandatory for most of the company's workforce, adding that "while our employees have continued to provide the same high levels of service to all of our stakeholders, the work from home policies were never intended to be permanent."

Return to the office

It's unclear exactly how many employees will be affected by the new company policy. Most Blue Cross workers are based at the company's Baton Rouge headquarters near Bluebonnet Boulevard and Interstate 10, though some work in Lafayette or in satellite offices.

In early June, leaders and top managers will begin returning to the main office and working on a plan that will categorize employees based on their job, the memo said. Some will be required to return to the main office every day. Others will be classified as flexible and will continue to have the option of remote work one or two days a week, the memo said.

On-site and flexible workers will be asked to return to the office Sept. 3.

"These decisions are not being made lightly or meant to cause hardship," Camerlink's memo said. "They come from a recognition that we need to become more available, agile and responsive. We need to build excitement and momentum together to keep this company on a true course."

Across the country, employers are grappling with how to get workers back to empty office buildings at a time when companies are also competing for talent by offering hiring packages that often include flexible work options.

At a real estate forum in New Orleans earlier this week, national real estate expert Matthew Valleskey of CBRE said keycard swipe data from office buildings across the country shows that only 53% of office workers have actually returned to the office four years after the pandemic began.

"Profit will dictate policy and the jury is still out on whether office workers will come back," he said, noting that law firms and insurance companies have been leading the way in returning to the office.

Though some studies have suggested requiring employees to spend more time in the office does not increase productivity or efficiency, other Blues have mandated a return to the office in recent weeks and San Diego-based health care consultant Nate Kauffman said health systems in general are asking workers to come back to in-person work.

"We're seeing more and more companies do it," he said.

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