13 payers cutting jobs | 2024

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 May 20 and will continue to be updated this year.

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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. In May, Optum said it would a close a Change Healthcare facility in Toledo, Ohio, resulting in the termination of 129 employees
   
   
4. Highmark laid off 47 employees in May and 182 employees in March, which included 159 in the insurance division.
   
   
5. 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.
   
   
6. MVP Health Care said in February it laid off 34 employees in New York and Vermont, or about 2% of its workforce.
   
   
7. Medica laid off 162 employees across the organization in February, or about 6% of its 3,000-person workforce.
   
   
8. 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.
   
   
9. 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.
    
10. 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.
    
    
11. 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.
    
    
12. 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.

13. Kaiser Permanente has laid off more than 300 employees across California since October 2023, including IT and administrative roles.