Health insurer Highmark Inc. is considering sending work overseas, possibly technology or call center jobs, in an effort to shave administrative expenses.

Several sources told the Post-Gazette that Highmark has been considering a fact-finding trip to India, purportedly to research whether the insurer should locate some of its jobs, or hire contractors, there.

Last week, Highmark’s spokesman said that no “senior executive, nor anyone else acting on Highmark’s behalf has been to India or any other Asia country on a trip related to the issue of outsourcing, nor is a trip planned at this time.”

Discussion of such a trip, though, had been the subject of angst among some of Highmark’s information technology, Web and back-office customer service employees, mainly because those employees are the ones who could be affected if Pittsburgh’s largest health insurer ever decided to outsource, or off-shore, some of its jobs.

Highmark employs about 10,000 people in the state.

Highmark spokesman Michael Weinstein acknowledged that outsourcing discussions have been ongoing for much of 2009. “One of the options we’re looking at — are there opportunities for a narrow band of services that could be handled in an outsourcing, off-shore [basis]?” he said.

Mr. Weinstein also stressed, by phone and in an e-mailed statement, that the off-shoring talks are preliminary.

“We’re not even there yet. There is no plan yet to outsource any of our business operations,” he said in a phone interview this month.

He added by e-mail: “We’re currently evaluating a number of new approaches as we look to grow our business and reduce our administrative costs. Among the many options we’re reviewing are our sourcing models, including the exploration of outsourcing and off-shoring. … We’re in the early stages of our evaluation, which will take several months to complete.”

Read much more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09354/1022068-407.stm#ixzz0aL00S0WI