Health insurer WellPoint has announced that it will outsource its internal information technology help-desk functions, cutting about 100 jobs, including 50 in the Richmond area.

The cuts will come at WellPoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, citing a company spokesperson. The subsidiary of the nation’s largest health insurer covers the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

A company spokesman told the newspaper that the insurer has partnered with Dell to provide internal help desk and desktop computer support services for its workers. The cuts, aimed at reducing costs, are for internal help-desk services, the spokesman said, and are not “member-facing job functions.”

The affected employees will remain with the company for much of the summer until the transition to the new Dell help desk is completed, the Times-Dispatch reported. Severance packages will be available and other opportunities may be open with either WellPoint or Dell.

Most of the other job cuts are slated for Indianapolis, where WellPoint operates another computer health desk, the report said.

In January, Indianapolis-based WellPoint said it would cut about 1,500 jobs this year, in light of the worsening economy.

This story originally appeared in the July 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.