Premera plans to trim 40 positions

  • By Jim Davis The Herald Business Journal
  • Thursday, January 28, 2016 8:15pm
  • Business

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Health insurer Premera Blue Cross announced Thursday it is eliminating 40 mainly sales staff jobs.

The cuts come as the company expands a partnership with an outside vendor to take sales calls from people seeking to buy on the individual market, or purchasing health insurance on their own.

It’s possible that other job cuts could happen, said Eric Earling, the company’s director of communications. “I don’t have anything that we can share right now,” Earling said. “We’re a large company that continues to evolve in a changing environment.”

The Mountlake Terrace-based Premera employs about 3,800 and provides health, life, vision, dental, disability and other types of insurance.

Premera has experienced positive growth in terms of members over the past year. But insurers are under competitive pressure to keep costs low. Earling said the jobs cuts were a difficult decision.

“We regularly hear from our customers that they are concerned about the cost of coverage and we are continuously looking at ways to serve them more efficiently,” he said.

The change will affect only new customers to Premera; it does not affect customer service for existing customers on the individual market.

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