MM Curator summary
Iowa MCO contracts are up for grabs at the end of this year.
The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.
State Medicaid Director Liz Matney told the Council on Human Services the state will seek a third managed care organization later this year.
Iowa Medicaid officials said the state plans to start taking applications for a third managed care organization later this year.
Iowa has had just two managed care organizations for its Medicaid program since United Healthcare left the state in June 2019.
Amerigroup and Iowa Total Care, which joined the state on July 1, 2019, the day after United Healthcare officially pulled out, are the state’s two current MCOs.
State Medicaid Director Liz Matney, who started in her new position last month, told the Council on Human Services on Thursday that the state intends to search for another MCO.
“We did put up our notice for intent to do a request for proposal. So we are going to be soliciting bids later this year,” she said.
According to the notice, the state is going to release the request for proposals on or around Dec. 22.
Matney said Amerigroup’s contract ends in 2023, and Iowa Total Care’s contract ends in 2025.
State Releases $44 Million To Iowa Total Care
Matney also told the council that the state has released $44 million back to Iowa Total Care that was withheld over payment issues.
The state announced in January of last year that it would withhold the money from Iowa Total Care after it failed to pay 106,000 Medicaid claims.
Matney said the MCO completed the final phase of its claims audit review this spring.
“We had the report back and they met the threshold of what we had determined to be, you know, a successful outcome,” she said.
The state’s Medicaid program serves more than 700,000 Iowans.