Health Insurance Forum

Health insurance news from Carolina

by mahir on 04/06/10 at 11:47 am

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, looking for ways to cut costs, has in progress a pilot project with Boston-based information technology company Keane to examine data from the insurer’s electronic storehouse. A plan by a North Carolina health insurance company to check outsourcing some of its data management work is drawing censure from people who say the company shouldn’t be transfer jobs abroad, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The examination would be used to improve the company’s 10-year-old information system, which could put aside money. Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman said some of the labor likely will be handled at a Keane facility in India. “It does not change on any present jobs,” Borman said. “But I can’t talk to down the road.”Sending work previously done in the U.S. to other countries to save money is nothing new. But one business expert says there is a backlash from customers and others when it happens for the first time.
“The whole impression of sending jobs offshore is a biased hot potato,” said Jim Johnson, a professor of tactic and entrepreneurship at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. “Most companies attempt to keep it under the radar.”The savings can be marked. The standard annual salary for an information technology employee in India is about $20,000 compared with an average of $80,000 in the U.S.
“It’s scandalous they would export jobs when the Research Triangle area has all the manpower and know-how to complete the task,” said Dana Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina. “Blue Cross is meeting on billions in treasury and paying millions to its top executives. I would favor that they use some of that money to hire some IT workers in North Carolina.”
Cope has criticized the company for how much it makes administering the health plan for North Carolina state employees. He said since the company is supported partially by taxpayer dollars, it should not be allowable to send jobs elsewhere.  Borman said the company will assess the Keane project this summer before deciding whether to enlarge it.