(Updated to reflect new expiration date for the MCO contracts provided by the state)
An Ohio-based managed care nonprofit is teaming up with Kansas groups that advocate for children, mental health and Kansans with intellectual disabilities to bid on a contract to administer the state’s Medicaid program.
CareSource, founded in 1989 and headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is forming an alliance with InterHab, the Children’s Alliance and the Association of Community Mental Health Centers to bid on one of the state’s managed care contracts to run the program.
The contracts for the state’s three existing managed care companies – Aetna Better Health of Kansas, Sunflower State Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kansas – expire at the end of 2023.
Kansas has submitted a contract extension to the federal government seeking a new expiration date of Dec. 31, 2024.
The state, meanwhile, plans to start seeking new proposals to administer the $4 billion program this fall with a goal of getting them returned next winter.
The new contracts will be awarded and announced in the spring of 2024 and will go live in January 2025.
While it is believed that as many as seven groups may bid on the contracts, including the three existing companies, CareSource announced its plans on Wednesday to compete for the contracts to administer the program.
“The CareSource HealthAlliance is the first opportunity in Kansas for an integrated approach to delivering health care services for children and families in foster care in a way that is transformational in our state,” said Rachel Marsh, CEO of the Children’s Alliance of Kansas.
“Families we serve need a range of services from mental health support to substance abuse to intellectual developmental disability support or a combination of those. Now, we can inform health care from the whole family’s perspective,” Marsh said in a statement.
The alliance is different in the sense it is intended to make up for any limited experience the managed care companies have in caring for Kansans with intellectual disabilities or mental health issues as well as children who are considered at risk, officials said.
The partnership between CareSource and the advocacy groups is intended to give service providers who deal with the most complex health care needs a voice in developing a program that will manage care for the most vulnerable Kansans.
The idea is to break down silos and create transparency and accountability as a managed care company that is focused on filling gaps and improving the experience for members with the toughest health care needs, officials said.
“Historically as I look at other states, a lot of times associations and providers and managed care organizations are sometimes on the opposite ends of the table,” said Erhardt Preitauer, president and CEO of CareSource.
“The opportunity to align I think is very, very significant,” Preitauer said. “We operate very, very different as we think about how we partner.”
CareSource is a nonprofit that serves more than 2.3 million people in seven states, including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas and North Carolina.
The company, which employs more than 4,700 people, reported revenues of $11.2 billion in 2021.
