Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island to Cut Jobs

For those of you who are not familiar with the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island here is a look at how the company describes itself, “Our Vision To improve the quality of life of our customers and of the people of Rhode Island by improving their health. Our Mission To improve members’ health and peace of mind by facilitating their access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.” This week the company has cut down on workers by about 43 positions in total. Give that they employ about 1,000 workers in the whole of the state this layoff is by no means a large one, but it is a layoff that will hurt the workers who are impacted by it none-the-less.

The company put out a release about the job cuts.  In that release the company said the following about the job losses, “As part of its ongoing commitment to operate as efficiently as possible and moderate the long-term cost of healthcare in the state, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) has taken a number of actions over the last several years that are helping to moderate the cost of health insurance.  Like any responsible business, BCBSRI regularly evaluates the cost efficiency and effectiveness of the organization’s staffing structure and, as a result, has eliminated 43 positions throughout the company, effective immediately.  Sixty percent of the workforce reductions were management positions.”
While most companies do take a stoic approach to layoffs, even when they do put out a statement. In the press release, Kim Reingold, a spokesperson for the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, said the following about the way that the company feels about the job loss, “After a thorough review of our business, we identified opportunities to improve efficiency and streamline the company’s management structure—from vice presidents to team leaders—in order for managers to make decisions more quickly, reduce the distance between management and customers, and have consistent accountability across all levels of the organization. While decisions like this are never easy, BCBSRI is committed to regularly evaluating our operations to ensure we function as efficiently as possible without sacrificing quality of service for our members.” Given that the workers were already let go this week, and there is no protection from a mass layoff in this case, so  the workers were let go effective immediately.

For the time being the company has not given out a lot of details about the kinds of help, if any, that they plan on giving to the workers who are going to be displaced. They have not said if they are going to try to find the laid off workers new jobs in the other positions left in the company. They have not said if they are going to give the workers of the company any kind of a severance at all. As the company is going through some changes, and this is not the first time that they have taken to layoffs in order to fix their fiscal problems, so there may be future waves of layoffs in the future.