Laid off from Optum.

No round-specific severance terms are on record for the New Jersey layoffs or any other Optum round. Two documents still bear on it. The OptumCare Severance Pay Program, with terms dated January 1, 2022, sets three to 26 weeks of base pay by grade level and completed years of service, and pays only to someone who signs a Severance Agreement and Release without revoking it. If your layoff falls under New Jersey's WARN law, the state also requires severance of a week's pay for every full year you worked there. Read your own agreement against both. It governs what you're offered, and in New Jersey it can't waive the statutory severance by itself, because that waiver needs the commissioner or a court to approve it.

Optum is UnitedHealth Group's care-delivery and services arm, and it files layoffs under its own entity names, Optum Care, Optum Medical Care and Optum Services among them. This page tracks those filings; our UnitedHealth Group page covers the parent. The split reaches your paperwork too, because the OptumCare severance program names some Optum companies as employers outside it, so the employer and eligibility definitions in whichever plan governs your separation are the ones to read. If your badge says Optum, look for the filing under your entity's name, which our tracker carries for the state archives we collect.

The company gave a general reason and withheld the specifics. A spokesperson said Optum was consolidating operations as part of "our commitment to making health care more affordable" and that it routinely reviews services, footprint and staffing levels, then declined to say how many offices were closing. What the record fixes is the scope, 572 roles across four entities, every behavioral health service in the state ended, and patients told on November 3, 2025 that practices would close on November 30.

Our tracker holds 12 filings covering 868 jobs across three states in 2026, most of what it holds since the start of 2025. Behind them sit the 572-role New Jersey clinic closures that took effect in February and March, the divvyDOSE closure in Moline, Illinois, a California filing of 80 jobs in June, and two New Jersey rounds totaling 115 roles. The tracker carries what the state archives we collect have published, so anything newer lags it.

Optum reported the closure to Illinois on June 5, 2026, with 32 of 98 employees scheduled out by August 6 and the remaining 66 by September 3. divvyDOSE sorts prescriptions, over-the-counter medications and supplements into pill packs. Nothing in the reporting we track explains why, and the outlet that reported it recorded that Optum hadn't answered its request for comment.

Under the OptumCare Severance Pay Program's published terms, a signed Severance Agreement and Release that you don't revoke is one of the conditions the program pays on, alongside an involuntary termination for position elimination and working through your termination date. If your layoff falls under New Jersey's WARN law, check one thing first, because a waiver of the statutory severance right there does nothing unless the commissioner or a court signs off. Those documents describe programs; yours is decided by your agreement.

In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. Optum's biggest U.S. hubs are New Jersey, California, Maryland, Illinois. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.

Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.

Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.

First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.

Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.