While I am not dismissing the possibility of this happening eventually, it doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint.
The goal of 'project Nickel' is primarily about two things: 1) Immediately reducing costs. 2) Structuring the company for a takeover. I believe that the need to immediately reduce costs is paramount. Given that the majority of IT work is already outsourced or performed by contractors, Molina wouldn't see any huge cost savings because they would still have to pay for outsourced labor as well as the costs in transitioning, which would be significant. Plus, I suspect the most talented individuals would not stick around to train someone to take over their job since it would take them about a week to find a new job. Will Molina find some people to cut in IT? Of course, but the entire department being gone by the end of the year seems improbable.
What is the most disheartening about the whole process has been that as far as anyone knows there has been no input asked on which employees to keep and which to let go. It seems like it will be done based entirely upon job description and not on any merit.