One of Iowa’s Managed Care Organizations (MCO) is withdrawing from providing coverage to 215,000 Iowans effective November 30th.

According to the Iowa Department of Human Services, AmeriHealth Caritas is withdrawing from the Iowa Medicaid managed care program. Clients who currently have AmeriHealth Caritas for Medicaid coverage will be transitioned over to another MCO, either Amerigroup Iowa or UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley. At Thursday’s Washington County Board of Health meeting Fiscal Administrator of Washington County Public Health Peggy Wood said Caritas was a good, quick payer to the provider, and this change will impact people in Washington County, “A majority of our clients were Caritas.”

Iowa DHS says the change happened, “After months of dilligent negotiations, the state and AmeriHealth Caritas were unable to come to mutually agree on future contract rates and terms.”