State: Another delay for Medicaid contracts

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services on Friday announced another delay in the start of new Medicaid management contracts covering about $12 billion in annual benefits.

Because of protests by losing bidders for the contracts that were awarded in January, “the transition to the new agreements scheduled for June 2017 is no longer feasible,” DHS said in a notice. The winning bidders need more time to negotiate contracts with health care providers, DHS said.

The new start date for the contracts is January 2018 in three of the state’s five Medicaid-managed care zones: the Southwest, Northwest and Northeast.

Medicaid is a state-federal program that covers people who are poor or disabled.

Initially, the new Medicaid-management contracts, which oversee benefits for 2.2 million Pennsylvanians under the state’s HealthChoices program, were to start rolling out last month. The contracts were first awarded in April, but Aetna won a preliminary injunction in July, stalling the process.

In January, the following companies secured contracts to serve Medicaid members throughout the state: Gateway Health, followed by UPMC Health Plan with four regions, and Philadelphia-based AmeriHealth Caritas Health Plan, which was awarded three regions.

Companies filing bid protests were Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and AmeriHealth Caritas.