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 April 25 and will continue to be updated this year.
- Optum employees took to social media beginning April 18 regarding a reduction in force they say occurred across the organization, including at Optum Virtual Care and Navihealth.
- Highmark laid off 182 employees March 11, which included 159 in the insurance division.
- Elevance Health is laying 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 was laying 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.
- 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.
- Humana plans to lay off a small portion of its workforce, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Jan. 16. 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, is laying 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 will take 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 laid off 79 administrative employees across California. The move came after the Oakland, Calif.-based organization disclosed in December it also eliminated 115 IT positions, 74 of which are based in California. The 153 employees in California were officially terminated Jan. 4, according to WARN documents filed with the state. In March, Kaiser eliminated another 70 IT positions in California.