Iowa Medicaid insurer names new CEO

Jan. 03--Iowa Medicaid insurer UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley announced new leadership Thursday.

Alissa Weber was named chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Iowa, a managed care organization within the Medicaid program, effective Jan. 15, company officials told The Gazette.

Weber previously had been serving as the chief financial officer in Iowa for UnitedHealthcare, directing oversight for the financial management of the health plan and "strategic direction for the development of a sustainable Medicaid program," according to her biography.

The new CEO succeeds Kim Foltz, who departed the company in July "to pursue other opportunities."

Bror Hultgren, senior vice president for UnitedHealthcare's Medicaid business Community and State, is the interim CEO.

Previously, Weber worked at Centene Corporation, a nationwide insurance company, for more than 12 years. She held a number of positions there, including health plan vice president of finance for home state health plan, director of corporate development and more.

Weber also has consulting experience with Midwest-based auditing, tax and consulting service companies Arthur Andersen and KPMG.

Weber is a native of the Quad Cities and currently lives in Central Iowa. She holds a bachelor of business administration degree in finance from the University of Iowa, according to her biography.

UnitedHealthcare is a division of UnitedHealth Group, a Minnesota-based managed health care company.

It's also one of two private insurers providing coverage for the thousands of poor and disabled Iowans on Medicaid. UnitedHealthcare covers more than 420,000 Iowans -- nearly 70 percent of the 600,000 enrollees in the program, according to data from Iowa Medicaid Enterprises from July 2018.

UnitedHealthcare underwent major growth in its membership in the past year after former Medicaid administrator AmeriHealth Caritas exited the program at the end of 2017, citing an unstable financial situation.

AmeriHealth reported a loss of nearly $300 million in the first year in operation in Iowa after the Medicaid program switched from a state-run system.

All managed care organizations saw large financial losses during the first year of operation.

UnitedHealthcare has multiple lines of business in the state and is not required to file a separate report for its Medicaid business, but officials have stated publicly in the past they lost more than $100 million.

The state Department of Human Services, which oversees Iowa Medicaid Enterprises, has since selected a subsidiary of Centene Corp. called Iowa Total Care as the third managed care organization to begin administering coverage to members July 1, 2019.

l Comments: (319) 368-8536; [email protected]

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