One hundred people who used to work for WellCare Health Plans, Inc. in Tampa were laid off Thursday as part of a 3-percent workforce reduction, according to the company's corporate communications office.
The Tampa-based insurer provides managed care services for Medicaid and Medicare health plans. It blames the layoffs on changing requirements for federal and state government programs.
At the same time, the company said it is planning to bring about 500 new jobs to Florida to handle new Medicaid customers the insurer expects to get in the switch to statewide managed care.
"These are completely different positions than those eliminated [Thursday]," said vice president of communications Jack Maurer.
Maurer said that when WellCare starts to hire for those positions, laid-off associates can apply.
Across Florida, 115 WellCare employees lost their jobs during this round of layoffs.
--Health News Florida is part of WUSF Public Media. Contact Lottie Watts at 813-974-8705 (desk) or e-mail at lottiewatts@wusf.org. For more health news, visit HealthNewsFlorida.org.
