FLORENCE — A government military contract with BlueCross BlueShield PGBA in Florence is being extended from April until March 2011, possibly saving hundreds of jobs in Florence.
But company spokeswoman Elizabeth Hammond said the 90 people who were working under another contract that ended will still have their positions eliminated Feb. 5.
Humana Military Healthcare Services, with PGBA as a subcontractor, received a notice of intent to extend its current South Region Contract from its expected end date of March 2010. The notice was issued by Tricare Management Activity, which oversees contracts for the U.S. Department of Defense’s military health plans, Hammond said.
The contract was up for bid earlier this year and was actually awarded to another contractor, she said.
The decision was appealed by Humana Military Healthcare Services and that appeal was sustained by the General Accounting Office.
Officials with that accounting office said Tricare officials would need to conduct a re-evaluation and issue a new award decision.
That award decision is pending; meanwhile, the notice of intent was issued, she said.
PGBA has about 2,000 employees working as subcontractors on South and North Region military health plan contracts. The employees are located in Florence, Surfside Beach, Camden and Columbia.
Earlier this year, BlueCross BlueShield announced there would be a reduction in staff in the Florence PGBA office because of the loss of a contract with a Medicare Advantage customer in Michigan.
That customer had a decline in business and lost one of its groups, which meant the customer had fewer claims to process.
The only way a person working under the defunct contract could be employed under this extended contract is if someone who is working under the extended contract leaves the company, Hammond said.
PGBA officials tried to give as much advance notice as possible to those employees, who are claims processors, Billy Quarles, the company’s media relations specialist, said in a previous interview
In the remaining months of their employment, the company will try to place as many of those employees as possible in other positions.
PGBA LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and has offices in Florence, Surfside Beach, Camden and Columbia. It performs claims processing, customer service, information systems platforms and fiscal services.
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