According to a report in BizJournals, Blue Shield of California is planning a layoff of hundreds of employees across the state next month, the bulk of whom are in the Sacramento region.

A notice filed with the California Employment Development Department shows that Blue Shield of California is planning a permanent layoff of 373 employees by Jan. 25. The notice, filed pursuant to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, (WARN) does not give a reason for the layoffs.

The planned layoffs include 126 employees at the health insurer’s El Dorado Hills campus and 24 employees at its Rancho Cordova office.

“As a nonprofit health plan, Blue Shield of California is driven by its mission to provide access to quality health care that’s sustainably affordable for all. This includes managing administrative costs, operating efficiently, and ensuring we have the right talent, skills, and capabilities in place. In a challenging economy, we have made the tough decision to reduce our staff,” the company said in a statement to the Business Journal.

According to Business Journal research, Blue Shield has around 1,500 employees working out of its El Dorado Hills campus, making it the second-largest employer in El Dorado County.

“The affected employees have been offered assistance, including staying on the job for up to 90 days while searching for a new position and skills training activities with the support of a certified professional career coach,” according to the statement from Blue Shield.

In August, Blue Shield confirmed that it had sold its El Dorado Hills buildings, at 4201-4207 Town Center Blvd., for $49.3 million, but planned to lease back half of the 244,983-square-foot complex, to better accommodate its new flexible work schedule which allowed employees to work from home part of the time.

“As a nonprofit health plan whose mission is to provide Californians access to quality health care that’s sustainably affordable, Blue Shield of California is always looking for ways to operate as efficiently as possible,” the company wrote to the Business Journal at the time. “As part of that effort Blue Shield has decided to consolidate some of its office spaces in the state, including El Dorado Hills.”

Layoffs elsewhere include 62 employees at the company’s headquarters in Oakland, 74 employees in Lodi, 63 across locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties, 16 in Redding, seven in San Diego and one in San Francisco.

The positions being eliminated include dozens of different job titles.

Blue Shield had $22.9 billion in operating revenue last year, according to its 2021 financial report, a 5% increase over the previous year. After expenses, the company earned net income of $237 million in 2021, which was down from its $680 million in net income in 2020.