Blue Cross, Medica notch big growth in public insurance
The HMO division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
The numbers provide a first look at how the market is changing after UCare lost most of its massive contract with the state to manage care for the largest portions of the Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare insurance programs.
For
"As expected, Blue Plus experienced significant membership gains in January as a result of the statewide bid," spokesman
"It's too early for us to start speculating on what our costs will be related to an increase in revenue," said McManus, whose company's combined enrollment in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare more than doubled to about 258,000 people.
Last year, UCare eliminated 250 jobs because of the lost contract, which covers state programs that primarily provide health insurance to lower-income Minnesotans.
The state says the contract changes are saving state and federal taxpayers
The Dayton administration moved to competitive bidding of contracts in the public programs a few years ago, following concerns that HMOs were making too much money on the business. It's too soon to say what margins might look like with the new contracts, but
"We submitted a bid anticipating very little margin and requiring us to do a better job managing costs in order to meet those margin expectations," Bartsh said in a statement.
In 2014, the HMOs at
With the contract changes,
UCare currently has about 14,000 enrollees across MinnesotaCare and the largest portion of the Medical Assistance program. The HMO also covers another 36,000 people in smaller public programs for special populations.
Whereas UCare had been the largest managed care organization in the public programs, the distinction now goes to
All public program enrollees have a choice in health plan options based on the county they live in, but people who don't pick a plan are assigned to the default managed care organization.
"By and large, whoever was the default carrier picked up the majority of enrollees who had to pick a plan," Bartsh said in an interview.
The share of enrollees assigned to the default plans was greater than expected, said
The new contract marked the first time competitive bidding was used for all counties in the state at once. As a result, more people were shifting health plans at one time than ever before.
The shift on
About 64,000 people received termination notices in December, but the cutoff letters weren't sent in time to satisfy requirements that enrollees get 10 days' notice. Plus, the
On
"We hope they will have an opportunity to get back onto the programs and enroll in the health plan of their choice," said Rivard of
Twitter: @chrissnowbeck
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