Blue Cross and Blue Shield Minnesota will cut 450 IT jobs

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is eliminating 450 jobs within its information technology division over the next several years, the Eagan-based health insurer announced Tuesday.

The changes will come as Blue Cross updates technology and moves to "more efficient and flexible technology platforms," the company said in a statement.

"The implementations will take place gradually from 2016 through 2019," Blue Cross said. "There will be no impact to IT staffing levels this year."

Blue Cross, which is the largest nonprofit health insurer in Minnesota, employs about 3,500 people.

Many of the IT workers will be asked to remain with Blue Cross for extended ­periods of time to complete current ­projects, the insurer said. Others will be trained to pursue other job opportunities within the company, according to the statement.

"We are decommissioning many of our older IT systems that require more manual processes," wrote Jim McManus, a Blue Cross spokesman, in an e-mail. "This means the work associated with those jobs will be not be part of the updated technology platform."

For 2014, the parent company for Blue Cross posted an operating loss of $8.2 million on $10.1 billion in revenue, which was better than the previous year's operating loss of about $29.5 million. In the fully insured market, Blue Cross posted a small amount of operating income in 2014, compared with a small loss in 2013.

Christopher Snowbeck • 612-673-4744

Twitter: @chrissnowbeck