Highmark Health has laid off 47 employees in its latest round of job cuts.
The Pittsburgh-headquartered organization owns Highmark Inc., which provides health insurance plans to 6.9 million policyholders in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and New York. It also operates Allegheny Health Network, which comprises 14 hospitals. A Highmark spokesperson declined to answer questions about the types of roles or specific locations affected.
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The layoffs were effective April 26, the spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
Highmark employs about 44,000 individuals globally and has hired more than 1,300 people this year, the spokesperson said. All 47 of the employees affected by the April layoffs were based in the U.S., according to the spokesperson.
“These changes are part of reinventing health — which means reinventing how our organization operates,” the spokesperson said.
The most recent layoffs, which were first reported by news outlet PennLive Tuesday, follow the 182 jobs Highmark eliminated in March. The organization has laid off at least 229 employees so far in 2024.
“We are focused on building the workforce of [the] future, which requires identifying talent gaps, investing in in-demand roles, such as nursing, and adapting technologies, such as [artificial intelligence], to better anticipate demand and drive value for consumers,” the spokesperson said.
Highmark said during a March call accompanying the release of its fourth-quarter financial results that it is working to evolve its business to meet customer needs.
“We’ve been making investments in a lot of areas in conjunction with our business review and we’ve also been redesigning our workforce and eliminating roles in some cases," Highmark Health Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Karen Hanlon said on the call.
The organization grew its workforce in 2023 by 2%, which included employees at Thryve Digital, the India-based tech business owned by its subsidiary enGen. Highmark declined to comment during the call about its employment growth in the U.S.
Nona Tepper contributed.
