UnitedHealth Group will lay off 138 workers from its staff because the health insurer lost a contract to provide Medicaid services to Delaware citizens.
The staff reduction will bring the company’s Delaware offices down to 122 employees, although spokeswoman Jessica Buechler said that recently, UnitedHealth could rehire newly laid-off workers through open telecommuting positions.
Buechler also suggested that UnitedHealth Group will work with competing for health insurers to find jobs for their recently unemployed workers.
The Wisconsin-based insurance company will also reduce staff in Arizona by 381 workers.
The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) announced in September that it will not renew UnitedHealth’s contract to operate the state’s Medicaid Managed Care Program in 2018.
UnitedHealth and Highmark Health Options Blue Cross Blue Shield will run Delaware’s Medicaid Managed Care Program, which serves about 200,000 Delaware citizens.
Highmark and AmeriHealth will manage the state’s Medicaid Managed Care Program operations starting on January 1, 2018.
UnitedHealth does not sell individual health insurance on Delaware’s Obamacare health insurance exchange.
UnitedHealth reported revenue of $185 billion in 2016.
Delaware’s economy continues to stagnate; the state’s economy grew at 0.1 percent rate, the lowest growth rate in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Delaware’s economy grew at the third-slowest rate of any station in the nation, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Delaware’s job market has also struggled; unemployment in the state rose to 4.9 percent in August, which is above the U.S.’s 4.4 percent.
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