Bookmark & ShareFor Immediate Release: 01/17/2012
Contact: Doug Porter, Director, Health Care Authority, 360-725-1040; Heidi Robbins Brown, Deputy Director, Health Care Authority 360-725-1040; Preston Cody, Assistant Director, Health Care Authority, Health Care Services 360-725-1786
OLYMPIA – The Health Care Authority announced on Tuesday that five health plans have been evaluated and qualified as apparently successful bidders on 2012-13 contracts that will provide managed care for more than 700,000 Medicaid clients and Basic Health subscribers.
The health plans, all managed care organizations, were identified as:
- Amerigroup
- Community Health Plan of Washington
- Coordinated Care Corporation
- Molina Healthcare of Washington
- UnitedHealthcare Community Plan
Two other health plans who bid on the contracts were Premera and Columbia United Providers. HCA extends its appreciation to all of the plans for the time and effort that went into the development of the proposals.
Next step will be to finalize contracts with the successful bidders, a step the Health Care Authority intends to complete by the end of February. The contracts, which will be effective July 1, 2012, and stretch through 2013, will include specific regional coverage details and the number of clients who will be assigned to them.
Evaluation of the bidders has been under way since early December, when bidding closed.
Doug Porter, Director of the Health Care Authority, said the Washington State contracts drew national attention since health plans across the country are eyeing the increased enrollment anticipated by Medicaid programs once national health care reform raises eligibility standards, effective January 1, 2014.
In Washington State, Medicaid expects to start adding up to a half million new clients at that point, most of them childless adultsnot currently covered by the program. Under the Affordable Care Act of 2009, almost all of the additional cost of their care will be picked up by the federal government.
The Joint Procurement contract is expected to save money for the state since it leverages the state’s purchasing power by consolidating the regular Medicaid managed care program called Healthy Options with the state’s Basic Health Plan, which provides coverage for the working poor. Other populations in this procurement include new Healthy Options clients such as foster children and blind and disabled Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients.
The Request for Proposals was opened to bidders in September.
The Healthy Options program currently provides fully capitated, managed care services for approximately 700,000 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), TANF-related Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) clients, which is about 60% of Washington’s total Medicaid/CHIP population.
HCA intends to add about 100,000 Medicaid clients who are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) but not Medicare under the new contracts at this time. Basic Health currently provides subsidized health coverage for approximately 41,000 low-income adults.
For additional information and background:
The Joint Procurement website is at www.hca.wa.gov/procurement
The Request for Proposals is posted at www.hca.wa.gov/rfp
The apparently successful bidders are posted at /www.hca.wa.gov/rfp/managedcare
FOR ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND, CONTACT:
Jim Stevenson, Communications, 360-725-1915 stevejh2@hca.wa.gov (Pager: 360-971-4067)
Sharon Michael, Communications, 360-923-2764 sharon.michael@hca.wa.gov
The Health Care Authority does not discriminate and provides equal access to its programs and services for all persons without regard to race, color, gender, religion, creed, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, veteran’s status or the presence of any physical, sensory or mental disability.
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NR 012-001
