CareSource set to provide Medicaid in Georgia

April 04--CareSource, a downtown Dayton-based nonprofit health insurer, on July 1 will begin serving about 200,000 Medicaid customers in Georgia under a contract with the Georgia Department of Community Health secured in 2015, the company announced Tuesday.

CareSource -- which has established a Southern Regional Headquarters in Atlanta, where it will employ about 250 -- will split an estimated $4 billion contract over six years with three other health insurers that have contracts to provide managed care services for the more than 1 million Georgians enrolled in Medicaid, according to the Georgia health department.

"CareSource has a 28-year history of serving populations with unmet needs and we are excited about bringing our successful business model to the state of Georgia," said Bobby Jones, CareSource's president for the Georgia market. "We will partner with the Atlanta community to help transform the lives of those we serve with our innovative programs designed to improve their health and well-being."

CareSource, which serves about 1.3 million Ohio Medicaid members, is also a leading provider of private health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.

The Georgia Medicaid contract will boost CareSource's total enrollment across all of its insurance products to nearly 1.9 million.

CareSource's rapid growth has led to sizable employment gains in Dayton, where about 100 workers will be hired to support the company's expansion in Georgia.

Last year, the company saw its Dayton-based workforce grow by nearly 16 percent to 2,200 from 1,900 in the previous year. The $7.2 billion company finished 2016 with a total workforce of 3,100, up from 2,700 in 2015.

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