UnityPoint Health notifies Medicaid patients of possible Amerigroup contract end

CEDAR RAPIDS - As the end of the year as well as AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa's departure from the state's managed Medicaid program near, the state's insurance market continues to be in flux.

On Wednesday, UnityPoint Health said it was notifying its Medicaid patients of a possible break with Amerigroup of Iowa at the end of this year.

In a news release, UnityPoint officials reported that approximately 54,000 of its patients were sent letters this week on the possibility of the Amerigroup contract ending on Dec. 31.

Negotiations with the managed-care organization are ongoing, but if an agreement is not reached by the end of the year, UnityPoint no longer will be part of the Amerigroup provider network beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

'UnityPoint Health has been working with the state of Iowa and the MCOs on the program, but despite our continued efforts, there's still some issues with the systems and with the partnerships,” UnityPoint spokeswoman Teresa Thoensen said.

Thoensen said she was unable to comment further on ongoing negotiations.

Amerigroup members would stop receiving care from the statewide provider on April 1, 2018, should an agreement not be reached.

Thoensen said officials wanted to begin notifying Medicaid recipients of the possible change to give them more time to prepare for the proposed change.

This announcement comes after the late-October announcement of AmeriHealth's departure from the managed Medicaid program, leaving only two Medicaid insurers in the state - Amerigroup Iowa and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley.

All 214,000 AmeriHealth members will be moved to UnitedHealthcare come the first of next year, creating the need for more employees at UnitedHealthcare. After being moved to UnitedHealthcare, enrollees then can elect to switch to Amerigroup, as long as they do so by March 1, 2018.

The MCO is expecting to hire more than 400 new case managers statewide, including 70 in Polk County alone, said Katie Bonner, UnitedHealthcare director of member experiences.

'We are fully invested and excited about this additional membership coming over,” Bonner said. 'We have obviously had to expand our current employee base to make sure we are hiring the right people who can identify and meet the needs of our new membership.”

Earlier this week, the Iowa Department of Human Services released a statement saying that, with AmeriHealth's withdrawal, the department is actively encouraging case managers to seek employment opportunities with UnitedHealthcare.

'If case managers for AmeriHealth Caritas members act quickly to pursue employment with UnitedHealthcare, they will have the opportunity to keep their current case load,” spokesman Matt Highland said in the statement.

Bonner said they have been working with AmeriHealth leadership to ensure their staff has the opportunity to pursue employment with UnitedHealthcare.

'It's hard for us to anticipate what might happen, so what we're going to do right now is focus on the transition and bring in all the 200,000 plus AmeriHealth members into our fold,” said Jesse Harris, UnitedHealthcare spokesman. 'As we see how that breaks down moving forward, we can make those determinations.”

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