BlueCross cuts jobs at Hoover HQ - Business First of Columbus:

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The number of impacted employeezs was notimmediately known, but sources said dozenss of positions were cut among BlueCross’ customer relations, marketinvg and data processing departments. The Birminghaj Business Journal reported on June 12the state’s largest healthy insurance provider had already cut human resourcew positions and were eyeing more BlueCross’ claims department personnel attended a June 4 meeting in which employees were told only eighrt jobs were available to bid on in a 200-personb department, sources said. BlueCross managers told employeews many businesses are turning to electronic decreasing the need for paped recordsadministered in-house.
BlueCross did not immediatelgy respond to phoneor e-mail messages seekin comment on Thursday’s job cuts. Two weeks ago, BlueCrosws said it is “reviewing the scale of our administrativw capacities” to be properly aligned with its customefr base and its corporate Without providing specific numbers on anticipatedfjob cuts, it said its personnel adjustmentsa are in response to declining customer It blamed the recession and the state’s escalating unemployment rate for the job In a June 10 e-mailed statement, BlueCross said it is “not immune to these challenging and difficult “We too are being affected by the current economix downturn and the doubling of the unemployment rate in Alabama over the last 12 BlueCross’ statement read.
“Many of our customers have had to reduce theif work force and this has resulted in some havinv to drop their healthcare coverage.” Alabama’s unemploymenty rate was 9.8 percent in May. It was 4.7 percent in May 2008. BlueCrosse of Alabama said it has 3,400 employeew in Alabama. In 2008, BlueCrosw had 3,000 local employees, according to Birminghajm BusinessJournal research. It held 96 percent of the small business health insurance market in the state in the most recent data available In 2008, BlueCross reported $4 billion in premiumk revenue, up from $3.5 billion in 2007. Its $28.
6 milliohn 2008 net income was 60 percent lower than in 2007 and resultedf in a profit margin of less than one half of1