Health insurer Medica sues Minnesota over Medicaid contract
It's not trying to overturn the new 2017 contracts, which are already in the process of being implemented. Rather,
"
THE BACKGROUND
The squabble dates back to 2015, when
But now
That's where the dispute with the state starts. When it came time to renew its state contract for 2017,
"My obligation is not to ensure the profit margins of health plans in the state," DHS Commissioner
Unable to secure more money,
NEW CONTRACTS WITH COMPETITORS
The new contracts were based on the 2015 bids, not a new round of proposals. But the contracts were constrained: the price could be no more than 5 percent higher than the lowest bid in each county.
UCare, which had been the big loser in the 2015 bidding after proposing considerably higher rates than other insurers, got most of the counties where
Though its new rates are in almost all cases lower than it offered, UCare CEO
But in addition to revisiting the 2015 bids,
Overall, state and federal taxpayers will pay
In its lawsuit filed Tuesday,
Those new contracts, it says, were "on unequal and materially different terms," in part because the competing insurers got to look at
"
It managed care for around 310,000
THE STATE'S CASE
"We have an obligation to ensure continued coverage for the more than 300,000 people affected by
"We couldn't have given just
State officials also said
"If the state had agreed to the rates that
WHAT'S NEXT
It wants
A judge will likely rule on some parts of
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