Molina pivots to permanent remote work, plans to cut real estate footprint by two-thirds - Healthcare Dive

Summary

Molina Healthcare said Thursday it plans to make remote work permanent and it will trim its real estate footprint by two-thirds, which executives said will yield substantial savings.

Molina, a Fortune 500 company and among the nation’s largest insurers, is the latest company to decide to go fully remote as the COVID-19 pandemic forced offices to shutter, sending employees to work from home and upending traditional work routines.

Molina Healthcare said Thursday it plans to make remote work permanent and it will trim its real estate footprint by two-thirds, which executives said will yield substantial savings.

Molina, a Fortune 500 company and among the nation’s largest insurers, is the latest company to decide to go fully remote as the COVID-19 pandemic forced offices to shutter, sending employees to work from home and upending traditional work routines.

“We intend to move permanently to a remote work environment, a model we have been working under successfully for nearly two years,” CEO Joe Zubretsky told investors on a Thursday morning earnings call.

Molina maintains its headquarters in Long Beach, California, along with offices in New York City, according to its latest annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The health insurer employed about 14,000 people as of Dec. 31, the filing states. Molina provides coverage to 5.1 million members in 19 states.

The insurer provided a more detailed account of its properties in a filing for the 2018 fiscal year. At the time, Molina said one of its business segments leased a total of 66 buildings. The previous filing also said the company owned the following buildings:

A 186,000-square-foot office building in Troy, Michigan.

A 24,000-square-foot mixed-use facility in Pomona, California.

A 26,700-square-foot data center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It’s unclear whether Molina still owns these properties. They were not listed in the most current annual filing, which no longer provides a detailed account of real estate holdings like in prior years.

“We own and lease certain real properties to support the business operations of our reportable segments,” the most recent annual filing states.

On Wednesday, Molina reported that net income for the second quarter increased 34% to $248 million on higher revenue of $8 billion. Revenue growth was thanks to membership gains in key segments like Medicaid and Medicare, in addition to the impact of recent acquisitions.