AmeriHealth Caritas to leave Iowa Medicaid system, jettisoning nearly 213,000 beneficiaries
The total of Iowa’s privatized Medicare Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), responsible for handling the state’s nearly $4 billion in Medicaid expenditures, annually, now sits at two, with the recent 30-day notice that AmeriHealth Caritas will leave the state entirely.
On Tuesday, Oct. 31, AmeriHealth Caritas notified Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) that it would not return to the state to be a part of the privatized Medicaid system, due to lost profits in covering beneficiary costs. Out of all three MCOs, AmeriHealth had the highest number of beneficiaries at approximately 213,000, followed by AmeriGroup’s nearly 187,000 and UnitedHealthcare’s 167,000, according to DHS records.
DHS is currently in the process of reallocating the 213,000 beneficiaries between the remaining two MCOs. According to Franklin County Community Services Director Russell Wood, the reorganization is completely random.
Read the full story in the November 9 edition.
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