Behind-the-scenes negotiations between insurers are powering Florida Medicaid’s transition to statewide managed care plans, the Naples Daily News reports (paywall alert).
The Agency for Health Care Administration last year awarded contracts to 17 companies in 11 regions across Florida. That prompted 64 different legal challenges from insurers that stood to lose out on a share of an estimated $80-billion pie.
All but one challenge has been settled, following negotiations between the competitors, but the details are not subject to Florida public record laws, the Daily News reports. That’s because AHCA, which promised transparency throughout this shift to private-sector contracts, was not part of the negotiations, an agency spokeswoman told the Daily News.
In action involving other state agencies, a three-year contract dispute over prescription drugs has been settled, the Florida Current reports. The Department of Management Services has dismissed a protest to a multimillion-dollar contract on prescription drugs for the Florida Department of Health.
South Florida’s Cooperative Services of Florida had challenged the award to Minnesota Multistate Contracting Alliance for Pharmacy to provide drugs for the state’s health clinics, prisons and other agencies, the Current reports.