PROVIDENCE – Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island announced late Tuesday afternoon that it is reducing its workforce, eliminating 39 full-time and 3 part-time positions, in an effort to reduce its administrative costs.
The restructuring, led by Blue Cross’s new president and CEO, Peter Andruszkiewicz, seeks to streamline the company with the overall goal of reducing administrative costs in 2012 to less than 15 percent of every premium dollar, according to Laura Calenda, Blue Cross spokeswoman.
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“Blue Cross has an obligation to our members to ensure that we are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible,” said Calenda. “Although we successfully reduced our operating expenses by $35 million over the last two years, we needed to do more.
According to Calenda, Blue Cross identified a number of opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce overhead costs by streamlining the company’s management structure, consolidating departments and eliminating redundancies.
Blue Cross, the state’s largest health insurer with revenues of more than $1.6 billion in annual revenue, will remain one of Rhode Island’s largest employers, with nearly 1,000 local employees, despite the layoffs.
Calenda said the company expects to continue creating new jobs as it intensifies efforts to play a leading role in transforming the health care delivery system. Blue Cross has been collaborating with local primary care physicians to improve care through innovative treatment models such as the patient-centered medical home. The company said it also remains committed to providing customers with the programs and products they need to improve their health and get the most out of every healthcare dollar they spend.
“The decision to reduce our workforce was very difficult, especially given these challenging economic times,” said Calenda, “but we also have an obligation to our 600,000 members to moderate the costs of health care for all.”
