BATON ROUGE — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana will be laying off employees across the state, the company confirmed to WBRZ on Friday.

The job cuts at several Louisiana Blue locations statewide are being done as the company continues to "navigate the current industry challenges driven by rising medical and pharmacy costs, as well as changes in Federal programs, especially the expiration of enhanced premium subsidies in the Affordable Care Act’s individual line of business," the company explained.

"Our company remains strong and viable. However, in order to be the best stewards of our members’ healthcare dollars, we continue to manage our costs as effectively as possible," the company said in a statement. "Earlier this year, we began to streamline our workforce, primarily through attrition. Whenever possible, roles that were voluntarily vacated were not filled. In some cases, we made the difficult decision to also eliminate filled positions." 

Louisiana Blue, which employs more than 3,000 people statewide, did not disclose how many jobs were cut. The Louisiana Workforce Commission requires a WARN notice if a company is to reduce its workforce by 50 or more employees in 30 days. The workforce commission does not list a notice for Louisiana Blue. 

According to Louisiana Blue, it is the largest health insurance provider in the state.