A consolidation of Blue Cross Blue Shield will affect most employees in the Stevens Point office.
Cobalt Corporation, the parent of Blue Cross Blue Shield, announced Friday, Nov. 15, that it is consolidating its claims and customer service departments into a smaller number of offices in Wisconsin, a move that will affect most, but not all, of the company's employees in Stevens Point and Evansville.
Stephen E. Bablitch, the Stevens Point native who is now president of Cobalt, said, "This was a very difficult and painful decision but a necessary one. The company lost approximately $140 million from 1999 through 2001.
"In order to return the company to financial stability, beginning at the end of 2001, we intentionally exited unprofitable business and lost over 60,000 members. This loss of business allowed us to begin to turnaround the company and to improve our financial position."
While dropping the unprofitable business, the company maintained its existing workforce but it failed to acquire new business, he said, leading to the employee reduction because the company has a workforce larger than needed for the current customer base.
Cobalt has 14 offices in Wisconsin and the move will consolidate the work into 12 offices. The decision will affect 98 employees in Stevens Point and 78 in Evansville. Employees in Stevens Point and Evansville unaffected by cuts include sales and provider relations.
Work relocated from Evansville and Stevens Point will stay in Wisconsin at one of the 12 remaining offices.
Cobalt executives met with all of the affected employees in Stevens Point and Evansville to make the announcement. They announced that both offices would remain operational through March 2003. Affected employees will receive a severance package.
That package includes severance pay based on years of service, continued pay of all health insurance benefits throughout the severance period, special stay bonus equal to the 2002 incentive plan, payout of 2002 and 2003 accrued vacation, and payout of 2002 and 2003 unused personal days.
In addition, on-site outplacement assistance will be provided by consultants from Lee Hecht Harrison, including resume preparation, interview training and job fairs.
Cobalt Corp. is the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Wisconsin and is one of the leading, publicly traded health care companies in the nation, offering a diverse portfolio of complementary insurance and managed care products to employer, individual, insurer and government customers.
The firm is headquartered in Milwaukee and formed by the combination of Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin Services Inc.