Payer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will give roughly 100 full-time employees at its Quincy, Ill.-based call center the option for a separation plan that includes benefits, Herald-Whig reports.
BCBS of Illinois did not say if the offerings were only for full-time employees who were at least 50 years old and have been an employee for at least 15 years, according to the report. One individual told Herald-Whig the plan included one year of salary and health coverage for six months.
In September BCBS of Illinois' parent company Chicago-based Health Care Service Corporation notified employees it plans to lay off 70 percent of its IT infrastructure staff and outsource system maintenance jobs to a foreign country. The announcement came after HCSC said it would provide buyouts to employees over the age of 50 at its BCBS subsidiaries.
"The healthcare industry is going through major changes, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is no exception," spokesperson Colleen Miller said, according to the report. "To succeed in today's healthcare marketplace, we must continually evolve and quickly adapt to meet our customers' needs and expectations."
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