From new headquarters to committing to permanent remote work, these are seven recent payer workforce stories reported by Becker's since Aug. 31:
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico added two hives and 120,000 honeybees to its headquarters in Albuquerque in September. Honey will eventually be available for purchase by BCBS employees.
- Four payers are among the nation's best workplaces for hybrid jobs in 2022, according to FlexJobs: UnitedHealth Group (5th), CVS Health (6th), Elevance Health (53rd) and Highmark (69th).
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City said Sept. 16 it is moving its headquarters to a new 18-story, 260,000-square-foot space in the city's downtown.
- BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has committed to permanent remote work and won't require the majority of its 6,300 employees to come to the office, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Sept. 9. In total, 88 percent of the company's employees now work remotely.
- UnitedHealth Group's Optum currently occupies a 54-acre campus in Minnesota that has been listed for lease, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported Sept. 8. Optum is leasing 473,000 square feet of office space on the campus through the end of 2023, with plans after that unclear.
- Fidelis Care has committed to remote and hybrid employee workstyles and will exit some leases for office space in the Buffalo and Niagara Falls region of New York, The Buffalo News reported Sept. 6. The Centene subsidiary will keep its lease for 90,000 square feet of office space in the CrossPoint Business Park of Amherst, N.Y.
- MetroPlus Health, a municipally owned nonprofit payer serving 675,000 New York City residents, opened its new headquarters Aug. 31 in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.