Kansas selects new KanCare contractors to administer state's privatized Medicaid program

Kansas officials have selected three health insurance companies to serve as managed care organizations for KanCare, the state's privatized Medicaid program that serves about 458,000 people.

The state is retaining two incumbent MCOs: Sunflower Health Plan, which is a subsidiary of Centene, and United Healthcare Community Plan. The state awarded a third contract to a new organization, Healthy Blue, a collaboration of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.

Current contractor Aetna wasn't awarded a new contract, though the state didn't specify whether they were among the seven total bidders. A list of bidders and a bid tabsheet weren't immediately available.

Tuesday's announcement of the winning bidders comes a month later than expected. When the Kansas Department of Administration released the RFP in October, the plan was to have contracts awarded by April 12.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Janet Stanek and Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services secretary Laura Howard thanked those involved in developing the request for proposals and new contracts. Howard said the feedback was used to enhance the RFP.

"This was a major team effort," Stanek said in a statement, "with a constant focus and alignment on achieving our vision for KanCare 'Partnering together to support Medicaid members in achieving health, wellness and independence for a healthier Kansas.' We look forward to our continued collaboration with the MCOs."

Copies of the new contracts were not immediately available from the Department of Administration contract database or KanCare Award webpage.

State officials said some of the improvements in the new contracts include the following:

• "Educating, engaging, incentivizing and empowering members to achieve personally defined health goals."
• "Enhancing care coordination to ensure timely access to needed services, continuity of care, successful care transitions and improved member outcomes."
• "Improving prenatal and postpartum care, including requirements for maternity care coordination."
• "Increasing the recruitment and retention of providers."
• "Expanding access to services in rural and frontier areas."

When the RFP was released, Gov. Laura Kelly said it was "carefully crafted to learn from past models and to find new ways to reach uninsured Kansans."

This was the first time that a Democrat's administration was in charge of the contracting process.

The state's Medicaid program was privatized starting in 2013 under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback with three contractors: Sunflower, United Healthcare and Amerigroup. A new round of MCO contracts were last approved in 2018 under Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer. Two losing bidders sued but lost in Shawnee County District Court.

Those 2018 contracts were worth nearly $4 billion combined.

The process for selecting new contractors was originally supposed to start with a request for proposals in 2022 ahead of a 2023 deadline, but Republican lawmakers extended the old contracts until after the gubernatorial election. Had Republican Derek Schmidt won, then Kelly's administration would have been cut out of the procurement process.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.