The short answer. From October 2025 through October 27, 2026, DAI verified 9,980 jobs cut across health plans, the companies plans own, and the vendors that depend on plan decisions. Every number traces to a WARN notice, an SEC filing, or a company statement. The real number is higher: buyouts, undisclosed cuts, attrition, and roles nobody backfilled are not in it.
The count by tier
Health plans: 4,077 jobs at 17 plans, across Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, ACA, commercial, and SNP lines of business.
Plan-owned services: 1,303 jobs at Optum, Oak Street Health, Evernorth Care Group, and Omnicare.
Enterprise cuts and closures: 3,150 jobs. Cigna announced about 2,000 cuts in February 2026, and Providence Health Plan is shutting down with 1,150 staff.
Downstream vendors: 1,450 jobs at companies whose cuts the source ties directly to plan decisions or payer market conditions: a home care agency, a Medicare broker, and two Massachusetts care and counseling providers.
The three biggest months were February 2026 (2,313 jobs, driven by Cigna), October 2025 (1,637 jobs, led by Optum in New Jersey and PacificSource), and May 2026 (1,519 jobs, led by the Providence Health Plan closure).
The named layoffs explain only part of the decline
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks employment at direct life, health, and medical insurance carriers. BLS does not publish a health-only series nationally, so this figure includes life insurers. That series fell from 880,600 in October 2025 to 855,000 in August 2026 (preliminary), a drop of about 25,600 jobs. Since December 2024, when it stood at 900,000, it is down 45,000, or 5.0%.
The 9,980 named cuts do not come close to explaining that decline. The rest is buyouts, attrition, cuts announced without a number, and open roles that quietly disappeared.
Why plan leaders should care
When a plan exits a market or cuts a benefit, the losses do not stop at the plan. They reach the brokers, the care coordinators, the caregivers, and eventually the members.
The work does not disappear with the headcount. Care management, quality, appeals, and member services still have to get done. Stars, HEDIS, CAHPS, and audit results will show how that went about 18 months from now.
If you are a plan leader cutting right now, map the work before you eliminate the role. Know which measures, files, and member touchpoints each role supports, and who picks them up.
What to do next
Map every role on a reduction list to the measures, audits, and member processes it supports before the list is final.
Check which delegated or vendor functions are affected by a cut you make, and adjust your oversight plan.
Watch your leading indicators, such as call abandonment, appeal timeliness, and care management caseloads, monthly after a reduction.
Document how work moved, so your next accreditation or CMS audit can see who owns each requirement.
How DAI counts
Window: events announced, filed under the WARN Act, or taking effect from October 1, 2025 through October 27, 2026.
Month: the month a cut was announced or WARN-filed.
Counted: confirmed headcounts only. Company approximations count as stated and are flagged.
Not counted: buyout and early-retirement offers, layoffs announced without a number, and annual headcount changes from 10-K filings.
Excluded: hospital and health system layoffs, federal contractors (such as Medicare administrative contractors and CMS appeals contractors), and WARN filings where the business unit could not be confirmed. Kaiser is excluded because its filings do not separate the health plan from its hospitals.
Double counts removed: where a company total already includes an earlier round (for example, Optum in New Jersey and Cigna's Evernorth sites), the earlier round is not added again.
DAI updates this tracker each quarter.
The full ledger
Health plans: 4,077 jobs
Aetna (MyCare Ohio): 72 jobs, October 2025. Source
Blue Shield of California: 150 jobs, October 2025. Source
Centene Management Company: 5 jobs, October 2025. Source
PacificSource: 300 jobs, October 2025. Source
Point32Health: 254 jobs, October 2025. Source
Sentara Health Plans: 220 jobs, October 2025. Source
Blue Shield of California: 7 jobs, November 2025. Source
MDwise: 238 jobs, November 2025. Source
UCare: 250 jobs, December 2025. Source
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey: 242 jobs, January 2026. Source
L.A. Care: 225 jobs, January 2026. Source
Aetna (small group): 313 jobs, February 2026. Source
Blue Shield of California: 69 jobs, March 2026. Source
Point32Health: 100 jobs, March 2026. Source
Baylor Scott & White Health Plan: 321 jobs, April 2026. Source
Molina: 156 jobs, April 2026 (notice month not confirmed; April 2026 is the reported layoff month). Source
Aetna: 6 jobs, May 2026. Source
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield: 30 jobs, May 2026. Source
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota: 45 jobs, May 2026. Source
Blue Shield of California: 69 jobs, May 2026. Source
PacificSource: 97 jobs, May 2026. Source
Presbyterian: 150 jobs, June 2026. Source
Elevance Health (Washington, DC): 85 jobs, July 2026. Source
Blue Shield of California: 60 jobs, August 2026. Source
UCare: 102 jobs, August 2026. Source
Elevance Health (Louisiana): 216 jobs, September 2026. Source
PacificSource: 134 jobs, October 2026. Source
Provider Partners: 161 jobs, October 2026. Source
Plan-owned services: 1,303 jobs
Omnicare: 64 jobs, October 2025. Source
Optum (New Jersey): 572 jobs, October 2025. Source
Evernorth Care Group: 143 jobs, November 2025. Source
Oak Street Health: 219 jobs, November 2025. Source
Optum (California): 92 jobs, June 2026. Source
Optum (Illinois): 98 jobs, June 2026. Source
Optum (New Jersey): 58 jobs, June 2026. Source
Optum (New Jersey): 57 jobs, August 2026. Source
Enterprise cuts and closures: 3,150 jobs
Cigna: 2,000 jobs, February 2026 (company approximation). Source
Providence Health Plan: 1,150 jobs, May 2026. Source
Downstream vendors: 1,450 jobs
GoHealth: 487 jobs, November 2025. Source
Community Counseling of Bristol County: 52 jobs, May 2026. Source
Innovative Care Partners: 70 jobs, May 2026. Source
24 Hour Home Care: 738 jobs, September 2026 (tied to Health Net ending a program). Source
GoHealth: 103 jobs, September 2026. Source
Frequently asked questions
How many health plan jobs have been cut since October 2025? DAI verified 9,980 jobs cut across health plans, plan-owned services, enterprise cuts and closures, and downstream vendors from October 2025 through October 27, 2026. The count includes only confirmed headcounts from WARN notices, SEC filings, and company statements, so the real number is higher.
Which health plans had the largest layoffs? The largest single events were Cigna's enterprise cut of about 2,000 jobs in February 2026 and the Providence Health Plan closure affecting 1,150 staff in May 2026. Among plans counted in the health plan tier, PacificSource, Blue Shield of California, and Point32Health had multiple rounds.
Why is the BLS decline larger than the layoff count? BLS employment at life and health insurance carriers fell about 25,600 from October 2025 to August 2026. Named layoffs explain only part of that. The rest comes from buyouts, attrition, unannounced cuts, and roles that were not refilled, and the BLS series also includes life insurers.
Does the tracker include hospital layoffs? No. The tracker covers health plans, plan-owned services, and vendors whose cuts are tied to plan decisions. Hospital and health system layoffs, and federal contractors such as Medicare administrative contractors, are excluded.
Sources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, series CES5552411001, "Direct life, health, and medical insurance carriers." bls.gov
State WARN notices, company statements, and news reports linked in the full ledger above.
About the author
Tina M. Dueringer, BSN, RN, CCM, PCC is CEO and Principal Advisor of Dueringer Advisors, Inc., a clinically led advisory firm for health plans and the companies that serve them. About Tina
Discuss this on LinkedIn: Dueringer Advisors on LinkedIn
Talk with us: Contact Dueringer Advisors