Eight Spokane employees of Providence Health Plans are among the 170 Providence workers expected to be laid off because of the planned sale of Sisters of Providence Health Systems Washington insurance operations to Regence BlueShield on Jan. 1, says Seattle-based Providence spokeswoman Diane Stollenwerk. The companies announced the pending sale in early September.


Regence spokesman Chris Bruzzo says all Providence employees will be given a first chance at job openings at Regence. He says he doesnt know if Regence will add employees to serve Eastern Washington customers, but if it does, the new hires would be in Walla Walla, where the company has centralized its operations on the east side of the state.


In Eastern Washington, Regence does business as Regence Northwest Health. Its Spokane office employs four people who handle marketing and underwriting services and another eight people, under the name United Northwest Services, who contract with care providers.


Whether Regence adds employees on this side of the state will depend on the number of insurance clients Regence gains, Bruzzo says. Providence insures about 10,200 people in Spokane County, Stollenwerk says.


The sale agreement calls for most of those insured to be enrolled in a Regence plan most like the Providence plan they had. However, people insured with Providence Coordinated Care, a plan for Boeing employees, and Providence Medicare Extra, a Medicare HMO, wont be enrolled automatically in Regence plans, Bruzzo says.


He says the company doesnt have enough time to complete the steps necessary to convert those plans.


Providence will notify Medicare Extra enrollees of other insurance options, and Boeing will have to shop around for coverage for its employees, Bruzzo says.