“This decision is necessary to ensure the contract award processes are conducted with integrity, fairness and transparency,” a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said.
BY EDGAR WALTERS Texas Tribune
Texas health officials announced Wednesday that they are starting over on a yearslong process to pick health insurance companies to operate a $10 billion portion of the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
More than half a dozen health insurers had protested the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s awarding of contracts in Medicaid’s STAR+PLUS program on the grounds that the scoring process was arbitrary and inconsistent.
The health commission, with recently appointed acting Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson now in charge, appears to agree.
Texas health officials announced Wednesday that they are starting over on a yearslong process to pick health insurance companies to operate a $10 billion portion of the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
More than half a dozen health insurers had protested the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s awarding of contracts in Medicaid’s STAR+PLUS program on the grounds that the scoring process was arbitrary and inconsistent.
The health commission, with recently appointed acting Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson now in charge, appears to agree.
About 530,000 Texans with complex and expensive health problems receive coverage through Medicaid’s STAR+PLUS program. The program covers elderly, blind or disabled adults.
The health commission announced tentative STAR+PLUS contract winners in October, but the final decision was tied up as many health plans filed protests. That announcement was a long time in the making; the state first asked health insurers to submit business proposals in March 2018 but then halted and restarted the process two times, finally requiring proposals to be submitted in November 2018.
Even while the award decisions were pending, the state paid an outside consultant to identify ways to improve its procurement processes. Mercer, the consultant, offered recommendations such as “better and more consistent training” of state scorers, which the state will incorporate, Mann said.
does this affect the dental MCOs?
The dental contract is separate.
Two questions:
1) Does this mean that Cigna Healthspring’s contract in Cameron County for Medicaid Star-Plus is still ending on 8/31/20?
2) Will Aetna be able to start enrollments in Cameron County for the Medicaid Star-plus members on September 1, 2020?
You’ll have to contact HHSC on this one.