Two years after Mississippi awarded Medicaid contracts to three insurers, the state is finally moving forward with its decision following challenges from UnitedHealthcare and Elevance Health.
Signed Aug. 12, the state is giving four-year contracts to Centene subsidiary Magnolia Health Plan, Molina Healthcare and newcomer TrueCare. The contracts are worth $3.8 billion.
TrueCare, which scored best against four other competing bids, is a nonprofit health plan strategically aligned with CareSource.
The contract was supposed to begin July 1, 2023, but was delayed as UnitedHealth and Elevance protested the state’s decision. This prompted MississippiCAN, the state Medicaid program, to award multiple short-term emergency contracts to UnitedHealth, Magnolia and Molina from July 2023 to June 2025.
“Currently our expectation is that the new contracts will go-live or begin operations on July 1, 2025, and enrollment in the new plans should begin May 1, 2025,” Mississippi Division of Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield told Fierce Healthcare.
Mississippi has more than 600,000 enrollees in its Medicaid program. The state has awarded $37.8 billion in state and federal contracts since 2017, reported Mississippi Today.
UnitedHealth and Elevance previously argued the blind bidding process to evaluate applications was unfair because applicants included identifying information. The protest is still being litigated.
Other states such as Florida, Kansas and Texas have also been under scrutiny for their Medicaid contract award process.
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