Health insurer Blue Shield of California plans to shut down most of its operations during the four days after Labor Day as a way of coping with what it calls the unsustainable situation of providing coverage for subscribers at prices “well below” its costs.
The San Francisco-based company confirmed Wednesday it expects to furlough 6,000 employees statewide, not including about 1,000 workers at Care1st, the health plan it acquired last year, thereby entering the state’s Medi-Cal market.
Blue Shield emphasized the shutdown will not affect its customer service or business continuity operations.
“Blue Shield is not immune to the many pressures that health plans are facing throughout the country,” company spokesman Clinton McGue wrote in an email explaining the furlough plan.
Blue Shield of California’s total membership in San Diego is 208,600 members. The company’s website says it has one sales office in San Diego.
Carlsbad health insurance broker Craig Gussin criticized the move as a potential “mess” for consumers who might not be able to reach Blue Shield during the shutdown.
“It will be their health insurance agent (if they have one) and I am not sure what we will be able to do, if we can’t get any one from Blue Shield to help us for those four days,” Gussin, past president of the San Diego Association of Health Underwriters, wrote in an email. He advised any subscriber with medical procedures scheduled for that period to get them approved ahead of time, or else have them rescheduled.
The shutdown was first reported Aug. 11 by the San Francisco Business Times.