WPS Health Solutions plans partial revamp of Monona headquarters

Nov. 8--WPS Health Solutions is embarking on a partial remake of its Monona headquarters, driven by a desire to consolidate locations, create a campus front door and accommodate a growing share of employees working remotely.

Officials say some of the changes are designed to make WPS more cost effective and better positioned to continue getting military and other government health insurance contracts, which have been a mainstay of business since the company formed in 1946 to provide insurance for soldiers returning from World War II.

"We're trying to consolidate our buildings for efficiencies in people, placement and logistics," said Ken Roseth, vice president of facility operations.

WPS has about 3,900 employees, including about 1,300 in the Madison area, and is Monona's largest employer, Roseth said.

The first part of a planned three-phase project over five to 10 years is a plan next year to build a $9 million support center on the 36.5-acre campus at 1717 W. Broadway, which currently has four buildings and a parking ramp. The buildings opened in 1973, 1978, 1989 and 2001.

The plan also includes selling the largest of the four buildings, the parking ramp and 17 acres of land, listed for $14.2 million. In addition, the company intends to stop leasing space at two other locations, on Todd Drive and South Towne Drive, and move those services and others into the support center.

The second and third phases call for building a hub next to the Corporate Center, the second largest of the four existing buildings, and an office-space addition to the hub if business grows as anticipated. Those two phases could cost roughly $40 million, for a total project of nearly $50 million, Roseth said.

Construction on the support center project, which WPS plans to bring before the Monona Plan Commission in December, is scheduled to start in February and be done by January 2022, Roseth said.

Consolidating a warehouse, a print center, a data center and other services in the support center, while selling some assets, should make WPS more competitive for government contracts, he said.

WPS supports more than 16 million people in TRICARE, the federal health insurance program for the military, and Veteran's Affairs Community Care Programs, spokeswoman DeAnne Boegli said. The contracts include claims processing, customer service and health care provider processing services.

The company also has contracts for Medicare Part A and Part B in six states and in Wisconsin provides Medicare supplemental insurance.

WPS Health Insurance, the original brand, offers health plans for individuals and groups. WPS Health Plan, based in Green Bay, offers HMO and point-of-service plans to the group and individual markets in eastern and north-central Wisconsin.

In addition, WPS's EPIC Specialty Benefits offers term life, disability, dental, vision, and voluntary benefits throughout the Midwest.

One driver of the company's revamping of its headquarters is to create a public front door at the hub to be built in phase two, Roseth said. Currently, each of the four buildings has an entrance and it's not clear where visitors should go.

"When you're coming in for a meeting, it really is confusing ... where our front door is," he said. "We want to reconfigure our front."

Another motivator is an increase in employees working remotely, even before the COVID-19 pandemic started early this year. About 40% employees worked away from the office before the coronavirus hit, and about 98% are working remotely now. Once the pandemic ends, projections call for 60% to 70% of people to work outside of the office routinely.

The campus building plan "has been in development for over a year and is not a direct reaction to COVID-19," CEO Mike Hamerlik said in a statement, "although the company expects a number of employees temporarily working at home because of COVID-19 will ask to become permanent remote workers when the pandemic subsides."

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