BRIEF: Serco subcontractor in Wentzville laying off 84 employees

Feb. 06--Cognosante, a healthcare IT subcontractor to Serco Inc., is closing its Wentzville office and laying off 84 employees.

Obamacare processing center Serco announced last month that it's closing its massive Wentzville facility, affecting about 850 employees. British-based Serco won a $1.2 billion, 5-year contract in July 2013 to process applications for the Affordable Care Act, the national health care law passed in 2010. That contract expires this summer, and Serco said it will then permanently close its Wentzville office.

With Serco closing, one of its subcontractors is also closing its local facility: Falls Church, Va.-based Cognosante.

In a layoff notice to Missouri officials, required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, Cognosante said its employee terminations will begin April 6: "Serco will no longer be performing this (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) work at its Wentzville, Missouri, facility .... As a result, Cognosante will permanently terminate our entire Wentzville staff" by June 30, the company said.

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