AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT PREMERA BLUE CROSS

Mountlake Terrace, Washington-based Premera Blue Cross, a health insurer licensee of Blue Cross Blue Shield, has announced a major reduction in force that will impact 285 employees in the company's Puget Sound area. The employees are said to be support personnel in non-customer-facing positions.

A company spokesperson noted, "While Premera remains strong financially, we recognize the tremendous toll the global pandemic has taken on the economy and many of our group and individual customers."

“Unfortunately, the global pandemic and the subsequent impact to the economy has forced us to move beyond our normal efficiency and cost-saving efforts to eliminate approximately 285 non-customer-facing positions out of 3,442 employees. That figure represents a cut of about 8.3%."

“Now, more than ever, affordability is the number one barrier to receiving high quality care, and we must do all that we can to reduce our costs and pass those savings on to our customers.”

"I cannot share specific positions as all impacted employees have not yet been notified. Positions range across the company in the Puget Sound region, 236 positions will be eliminated.

Premera is a subsidiary of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT AETNA (01/01/2025)

JANUARY 1, 2025 — 160 EMPLOYEES TARGETED

In another round of layoffs, CVS Health will lay off 164 employees at Aetna during a 14-day period starting February 15, 2025. These include clinical case managers, field sales representatives, sales administration managers, and care management associates.

According to the company, the layoffs are “due to an unexpected loss of contract in Kansas, which will impact remote employees who report to the Facility, as well as the decision to implement further reductions in staff impacting employees at or reporting into the Facility.”

OCTOBER 19, 2020 — Original post…

Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health, the company that owns CVS Pharmacy, Caremark, the pharmacy benefits manager, and Aetna Insurance, has announced that it is continuing with the restructuring to eliminate duplicate functions and redundant personnel at its Aetna Insurance subsidiary located in Hartford, Connecticut.

According to a company spokesperson, “Within the Aetna business, we are in the process of reorganizing and consolidating certain business segments to take advantage of CVS Health’s enterprise capabilities, while continuing to grow our core businesses and create added value for our members, customers, and provider partners. As part of this work, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a very small percentage of positions in Hartford.”

The company will not disclose the number of targeted individuals but claims that the restructuring effort will “impact all parts of the Aetna business.”

Such reductions in force are almost routine in the process of integrating subsidiary operations into a parent company to consolidate and streamline operations.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT ALLSTATE

Northbrook, Illinois-based Allstate, the iconic provider of insurance and financial services, has announced that it continuing with its restructuring and what the company characterizes as its multi-year Transformative Growth Plan.

"The goal of the Transformative Growth Plan is to increase personal property-liability market share by expanding customer access, improving customer value, and investing in marketing and technology. Customer access has been expanded by merging the Esurance and Allstate brand direct operations. Improving customer value includes improving the competitive price position of auto insurance, which requires cost reductions to maintain margins."

A key provision of this plan is a cost-cutting program that will impact 3,800 employees primarily in claims, sales, service, and support functions.

According to a company spokesperson, “Implementing this plan is difficult as we still deal with the impact of the pandemic but necessary to provide customers the best value. We have expanded transition support for impacted employees including prioritized internal hiring, extended medical coverage, expanded retraining support, and help in employment searches.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?