In Brief: Kansas Gets $3.1 Million In Transparency Grants; Centene Wins Medicaid Contracts
Kansas Gets $3.1 Million In Price Transparency Grants
The state of Kansas received $3.1 million under the Affordable Care Act as part of an effort to keep healthcare prices transparent.
The money will be used by the Kansas Department of Insurance to help review rate requests from insurers for healthcare coverage, as well as providing data to consumers regarding what providers charge for services. The money will go toward a two-year effort to build a “data center”
"Strong rate review programs save consumers money, provide more information to the public, and hold insurance companies accountable," said Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In addition to Kansas, Michigan received $3.4 million for similar efforts. Altogether, CMS granted $67.6 million to 21 states earlier this week with the aim of improving healthcare price transparency.
Centene Wins Florida, Massachusetts Medicaid Managed Care Contracts
Subsidiaries of St. Louis-based Centene Corp. have won Medicaid managed care contracts in the states of Florida and Massachusetts.
The Florida contract was awarded to Sunshine Health. It will provide Medicaid managed care coverage in nine of 11 regions in Florida for dual-eligibles and those enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, The estimated dollar amount of the contract was not disclosed.
The Massachusetts pact goes to CeltiCare Health Plan and provides coverage to non-pregnant adults throughout much of the Bay State. Coverage begins in early 2014. The projected number of enrollees and the estimated value of the contract was not disclosed.
Data On Missouri Medicaid Enrollees Disclosed
A contractor for Missouri's Medicaid contractor mistakenly mailed the personal information of 26,000 program enrollees to the wrong addressed between December 2009 and last June.
Data management firm InfoCrossing Inc. blamed the disclosure on a software error that led to information intended for Medicaid enrollees being sent to the wrong addresses. The information included names, Social Security numbers, Medicaid numbers, birth dates and phone numbers. No medical information was released, officials said.
The Missouri Department of Social Services has notified 1,357 Medicaid participants that their personal information was released. Another 25,461 enrollees will be notified that their personal information was potentially released. The agency and InfoCrossing will offer credit monitoring and identity theft services to victims of the disclosure for two years.
