A large company with offices in Florence and Surfside Beach, has lost a bid for a major Defense Department contract, and that may mean potential job losses.
PGBA LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and has offices in Florence, Surfside Beach, Camden and Columbia.
Company officials say the Florence office employs about 900 people and the Surfside Beach office employs about 850 people.
PGBA performs claims processing, customer service, information systems platforms and fiscal services according to BlueCross Blue Shield spokesman Billy Quarles.
One of the major contracts that the company has had for many years has been working as a sub-contractor with TRICARE, which is the Defense Department's health care program for military retirees.
On Monday, the contract was up for bid, and none of PGBA's prime contractors were successful, which means PGBA will no longer have the contract with the Defense Department.
PGBA will continue to provide services for TRICARE through March 31st, 2010, and will provide an additional 90 day period of transitional help.
Company officials say there is the potential for job losses due to the fact that the majority of PGBA's nearly 1,750 local employees were devoted to the TRICARE program.
They say that the Defense Department will hold a debriefing in the next two weeks, in which they will explain why they chose to award the contract to another company.
The main contractor will then have an opportunity to protest the Defense Department's decision.
Company officials say they are eager to find out why the Defense Department awarded the contract to another company.
Quarles said PGBA processes about 45 million TRICARE claims per year, with a 99.5% accuracy level and that 99.8% of claims are processed within 30 days.
PGBA has handled the TRICARE account for the past 28 years.
Quarles said that PGBA employees will continue working on the current contract, and that company officials are not giving up and that the decisions are not final.
Quarles also said the company will pursue other business opportunities as well, and is currently in a fact-finding mode.
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