Los Angeles, California: Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) papers that Blue Shield of California submitted to the state indicate that the company has verified a workforce reduction, with 165 employees scheduled for layoffs by January 31. This action is a result of the nonprofit insurer’s attempts to cut expenses and simplify operations.
The new round of layoffs affects about 2% of the 7,500 workers of Blue Shield of California.
Locations of Layoffs:
- Alameda County: 80 Layoffs
- Los Angeles County: 32 layoffs
- Sacramento County: 20 layoffs
- El Dorado County: 16 layoffs
- San Joaquin County: 13
- San Diego County: 3
- Shasta County:1
With an eye toward cutting prescription drug costs by $500 million annually, the firm moved its pharmacy benefit management from CVS Health’s Caremark to a new model in August that involves agreements with Amazon Pharmacy, Abarca, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug firm, and Prime Therapeutics.