Molina Healthcare, top Obamacare insurer, to cut about 1,400 positions: memo

Molina Healthcare, a health insurer that specializes in the Obamacare and Medicaid healthcare programs for low-income and poor people, plans to cut about 1,400 jobs in the next few months, according to an internal company memo reviewed by Reuters.

Molina's decision comes after it reported a first-quarter loss related to the individual plans created under former Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare law, and then fired its Chief Executive Officer Mario Molina a few months later.

The memo was sent to employees by Molina's Interim CEO and CFO Joe White, who said that the cuts, which represent 10 percent of its 6,400 corporate employees and 10 percent of 7,700 health plan jobs, aim to contribute to savings by 2018.

The cuts do not include the company's Pathways behavioral health business, which employs about 5,500 people.

"Moving forward, we must be exceptionally strategic in doing more with less," White said in the memo.

Long Beach, California-based Molina in February reported a fourth-quarter loss of $91 million, which it attributed in part to higher-than-expected patient costs on the exchanges created under Obamacare. The company sells these plans in nine states.

On May 2, Molina fired its CEO and his brother CFO John Molina, replacing them on an interim basis with White, who was Chief Accounting Officer at the time.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Nick Zieminski)