Payers are trimming their workforces and cutting jobs due to financial or operational challenges, along with restructuring strategies.
Below are workforce reduction efforts or job eliminations that were announced or take effect in 2024. Insurance industry layoffs in 2023 are here.
Editor's Note: This webpage was updated Nov. 18 and will continue to be updated this year.
- WPS Health Solutions is laying off 313 employees in Monona and Madison, Wis. starting Jan. 21, 2025 due to competitive pressures and federal contract losses.
- Government Employees Health Association (GEHA), a federal employee health plan provider, is terminating 453 employees in Lee's Summit, Mo. between Dec. 31, 2024 and April 13, 2025.
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Aetna laid off 416 employees at its Hartford, Conn. headquarters, most of which are effective Dec. 7. The company said 93 employees work at the facility in Hartford. The other employees work remotely in several states and report to the facility.
- Southwestern Health Resources, a Farmers Branch, Texas-based health system, will not offer Medicare Advantage plans in 2025, resulting in the terminations of 125 health plan employees.
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BCBS Michigan laid off 64 employees in August as part of an effort to cut administrative expenses as medical costs rise.
- GuideWell, parent of Florida Blue, is shuttering Diagnostic Clinic Medical Group, a chain of four medical clinics, resulting in the terminations of 245 employees.
- AmeriHealth Caritas laid off 102 employees in July, around 1% of its workforce, amid a decrease in Medicaid membership following redeterminations.
- Cigna cut some specialty services and consolidated certain Evernorth Care Group locations in Arizona, resulting in 261 employees being laid off, the company said in May.
- Texas Children's Health Plan is laying off "a few hundred" employees after the health plan lost 30% of its membership during Medicaid redeterminations, the Houston Chronicle reported in May.
- Molina Healthcare outsourced 52 positions to a contractor at its headquarters in Long Beach, Calif. in April. The payer said the move is a "rebadging" and no job losses occured.
- Optum is closing clinics in multiple states and laying off 524 employees across California or working remotely starting in September. Optum employees also took to social media in April regarding a reduction in force they say occurred across the organization, including at Optum Virtual Care and Navihealth. In May, Optum said it would a close a Change Healthcare facility in Toledo, Ohio, resulting in the termination of 129 employees. OptumCare, located in Basking Ridge, N.J., is planning to lay off 160 employees between Dec. 11 and Jan. 22, 2025.
- Highmark laid off 145 employees in May and 182 employees in March, which included 159 in the insurance division.
- Elevance Health laid off 90 employees at a facility in Dearborn, Michigan from March 29 to March 31. In October, CEO Gail Boudreaux said the company took about $700 million in charges due to workforce adjustments and technology asset write-offs during a strategic review. Last fall, the company also said it would lay off 87 employees at its office in Woodland Hills, California and 57 workers in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
- MVP Health Care said in February it laid off 34 employees in New York and Vermont, or about 2% of its workforce.
- Medica laid off 162 employees across the organization in February, or about 6% of its 3,000-person workforce.
- Community Health Choice, a Texas nonprofit, laid off about 130 employees in January amid the loss of around 35% of its membership following Medicaid redeterminations, the Houston Chronicle reported.
- Blue Shield of California laid off 140 employees, or 2% of its workforce, at the end of January, according to a notice the company filed with the state. The company laid off another 61 employees, effective Dec. 12.
- Humana laid off a small portion of its workforce in January, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. A Humana spokesperson did not confirm how many employees are affected by the layoffs, but said they are a small percentage of the company's total workforce.
- AgeWell, a specialty managed care insurer, laid off 68 employees at its headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., according to regulatory documents published by the state in October. According to the WARN report, the company's total employee count is 68. The layoffs took place in phases from Dec. 30 through June 24, 2024.
- Fallon Health Weinberg in Amherst, New York ended a long-term Medicaid managed care plan and laid off 17 employees before Jan. 12, according to a spokesperson.
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Kaiser Permanente has laid off more than 400 employees across California since October 2023, including IT and administrative roles.