Highmark completes acquisition of Gateway Health Plan

Highmark has closed on its acquisition of Gateway Health Plan Inc., an affiliated Medicaid managed care health insurer that boosts Highmark’s enrollment by 355,000 members.

Highmark had owned 50% of Downtown-based Gateway with Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health subsidiary Mercy Health since 1992, when Gateway was created. Gateway is among the private insurers in Pennsylvania that are paid by the state to cover people with Medicaid or Medicare benefits.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This acquisition will help us further our mission and better serve current and future Medicaid and Medicare members across Pennsylvania,” Highmark Health Plan President Deborah RiceJohnson said in a statement.

Inking the deal coincides with the launch of Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield-branded Highmark Wholecare, the new trade name for Gateway Health and its health insurance products.

Starting Jan. 1, Highmark Wholecare Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will be sold in Western Pennsylvania, while Highmark Wholecare Blue Shield plans will be sold in central, northeastern and southeastern parts of the state.

Gateway becomes a wholly owned Highmark subsidiary at a time when enrollment in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans has been rising.

As of January, enrollment in government marketplace plans rose to 80.5 million compared to 2020, up 9.3 million, or 13.1%, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study.

Twenty percent of Pennsylvania’s population of 12.4 million is covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Plan or Medicaid, which is for low-income people.