Idaho has dropped Optum as the managed care contractor for its behavioral health plan and awarded a four-year, $1.2 billion contract to Centene's Magellan Healthcare subsidiary.
Optum has held the state's behavioral contract for a decade. Magellan will now oversee inpatient, outpatient and residential mental health and substance use disorder services for 425,000 people covered by Medicaid or commercial insurance, along with those that are uninsured, according to a June 27 news release. The new contract has a service date of March 1, 2024.
Subsidiaries of Elevance Health and UnitedHealth Group lost out during the bidding process for a new contract and are suing the state for a "flawed" application review process, the Idaho Capital Sun reported July 5.
Magellan and the state have requested that the two subsidiaries, Beacon Health (now Carelon Behavioral Health) and Optum Health, dismiss their cases.