Molina reorganization will add jobs in NM

Nearly four months after announcing it would shed 81 jobs from its 1,200-person New Mexico workforce, Molina Healthcare on Thursday said a restructuring is underway that will lead to the creation of 250 new contact center jobs over the course of the next year.

However, it said it also plans to eliminate some positions that “are not meeting the company’s quality, affordability and efficiency goals.”

The company did not provide specifics on where any of those staff reductions would occur, but in July, Molina said it would chop 1,400 jobs from its nationwide workforce by the end of September, according to an internal company memo reviewed by Reuters.

In a prepared statement sent out Thursday, the company said over the course of the year the net number of positions located in New Mexico will actually increase. However, it did not say how much it would increase.

“Molina Healthcare is undertaking several initiatives to be certain that we remain the best choice for New Mexicans while remaining a good steward of the taxpayer dollars,” according to the statement.

Long Beach, Calif.-based Molina, which is an investorowned company, serves approximately 270,000 members in New Mexico through Medicaid, Medicare and the state health insurance marketplace.

“We thank all of our departing colleagues for their contributions to Molina, and are committed to treating them with dignity and respect by providing severance and outplacement assistance to ease the transition,” Thurday’s statement concluded.

Molina serves nearly 5 million people in 12 states and Puerto Rico.