AmeriHealth Caritas lays off administrative staff, as Medicaid enrollment falls nationwide

Jul. 2—AmeriHealth Caritas, one of the nation's largest Medicaid insurers, has laid off 102 people, including 13 at its Newtown Square headquarters, citing a decrease in its membership, the company confirmed Monday.

AmeriHealth Caritas has operations in a dozen states and is majority-owned by Philadelphia's Independence Health Group, which also owns Independence Blue Cross.

The company employs a total of 9,875 people, which means last week's layoffs impacted 1% of its workforce.

"Like all Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs), AmeriHealth Caritas has seen a decrease in our Medicaid membership and had to adjust our administrative costs to reflect this. Unfortunately, this includes the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles," the company said in an email.

AmeriHealth Caritas referred to KFF data showing that Medicaid enrollment nationwide has decreased by more than 23 million people as the federal government required states to resume checking to see if people still qualify for the government insurance for low-income individuals and families. Those checks were suspended during the pandemic.

Last year, AmeriHealth Caritas had $23.7 billion in revenue and $368 million in operating profit, both up strongly from the year before, according to the most recently published annual audited financial statements of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which owns 38.7% of AmeriHealth Caritas. Independence owns the remaining 61.3%.

Bidding wars for contracts

But this year, AmeriHealth Caritas has taken some hits. It lost a bid to remain in Florida, where it has been in business since 2012. AmeriHealth Caritas and seven other companies that were not selected for a six-year contract in Florida have filed protests. It also lost a bid for Medicaid business in Texas.

It remains in the running for a new contract in Georgia.

A new CEO, Kelly Munson, took over at AmeriHealth Caritas in February, making it her job to steer the company as it tries to win new contracts, including one that is out for new bids in Pennsylvania.

AmeriHealth Caritas is one of three companies that now has a contract for what the state calls Community HealthChoices, which pays for nursing homes, home care, and other long-term services for low-income seniors and disabled people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.

The total value of the contracts that cover more than 400,000 people statewide tops $5 billion a year.

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