Independence Blue Cross offers employee buyouts as part of restructuring effort
The Philadelphia health insurer said the buyouts were part of a broad effort to streamline its businesses.
Independence Blue Cross offered buyouts this week to employees as part of an effort to streamline its operations, the Philadelphia health insurer said Friday.
Independence declined to say how many people received the offer for employees who started before Dec. 31, 2020. The affected businesses, which operate under Independence Blue Cross LLC, employ 4,134 people.
The company said the buyouts were part of its “ongoing transformation.”
“We are building a resilient, forward-looking organization that continues to meet and exceed the evolving needs and expectations of our members, customers, provider partners, and communities,” the company said.
Independence did not say whether it had a goal for the number of people who take the buyout offer or if it would have layoffs if it didn’t reach the goal. Last fall, Independence laid off about 3% of staff, or 130 people, at Independence Blue Cross.
IBX’s parent company, Independence Health Group, employed more than 14,000 at the end of May. Many of them work for AmeriHealth Caritas, a Medicaid insurer that is majority owned by Independence, and were not included in this week’s buyout offer.
The buyout offers at IBX come as the health insurance industry nationwide is contending with significant increases in medical and pharmaceutical costs. Publicly traded insurance giants UnitedHealthGroup and Centene have withdrawn their earnings outlooks for the year.
As a private company, Independence releases consolidated financial information just once a year. In April, Independence reported its first annual loss since 2015. Officials attributed the $239 million loss in 2024 to large increases in medical and pharmaceutical costs, particularly for customers in Independence’s government-funded Medicare and Medicaid plans.