Five things to know:
1. In May, the state awarded contracts to manage care to incumbents Centene and UnitedHealthcare. Aetna tied for third in scoring with Healthy Blue — a newly formed collaboration between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, BCBS Kansas City and Elevance Health — but Healthy Blue was selected over Aetna.
2. Aetna used an administrative process to challenge the contracts, but the Kansas Department of Administration rejected the challenge in July.
3. Aetna then filed a lawsuit alleging flaws in the procurement process, according to the report. Aetna took issue with the technical scoring, as well as document destruction and alleged that the state had a conflict of interest with one of their competitors.
4. Shawnee County District Court Judge Thomas Luedke determined that the state’s actions during the procurement process were not “unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious,” according to the report.
5. Aetna has a separate case pending against the state over the Kansas Open Records Act, according to the report.
