PITTSBURGH, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to significant enrollment losses in its health care business during the past 12 months, Highmark Inc. today announced the elimination of 209 positions from its corporate workforce of more than 11,000 employees.
"Clearly, the action we are taking today is very difficult and a step that we are taking reluctantly," said Ty Alexander, Highmark's executive vice president of Human Resources and Administrative Services. "But given the fact that we have incurred enrollment losses of more than 400,000 members in the last year, we must implement this action now in order to keep our administrative costs competitive in the marketplace."
Alexander emphasized that additional cost-cutting measures have been in place at Highmark in the past year to reduce operating expenses. In February, a decision was made to eliminate approximately 190 vacant positions. In addition, Highmark implemented a new multi-tier payment system for its employees' health care coverage. Those employees who earn more are required to pay a higher percentage of their heath care insurance premium costs.
In Western Pennsylvania, 115 positions were eliminated and another 94 in Central Pennsylvania. Most of the job reductions occurred in two areas: Operations (customer service and claims processing) and Information Systems (systems support).
All displaced employees will receive a comprehensive severance package, including a minimum of four weeks' severance pay; additional severance if they have more than three years' tenure; compensation to help purchase COBRA insurance, as well as outplacement services.
For more information about Highmark, visit http://www.highmark.com/ .
HighmarkCONTACT: Western Region, Michael Weinstein, +1-412-544-7903, ormichael.weinstein@highmark.com, or Central Region, Jean Edwards,+1-717-302-4243, or jean.edwards@highmark.com, both of Highmark
Web site: http://www.highmark.com/
