Magellan Complete Care is dropping its challenge to contract decisions that were part of Florida’s multibillion-dollar reprocurement of the Medicaid managed-care program.
Tallahassee attorney Steve Ecenia, who represents Magellan, announced in administrative court Monday that his client and the state Agency for Health Care Administration had reached an agreement in concept and that the managed-care company would voluntarily withdraw 11 administrative cases.
There was not a settlement agreement spelling out the details, but Ecenia told The News Service of Florida that the company would receive a Medicaid contract as part of the agreement.
In the challenge, Magellan was asking a judge to either issue a recommended order that Magellan receive contracts or, alternatively, that the court issue a recommended order calling for a new procurement.
Magellan has provided Medicaid managed-care services to people in Florida with serious mental illness since 2006. It was awarded a Medicaid contract during an initial procurement after lawmakers in 2011 approved moving to a statewide Medicaid managed-care system.
AHCA has gone through a lengthy reprocurement process to award new contracts, which it completed this spring.
Magellan sought a contract but was excluded from the negotiations process and, according to the company’s challenge, “was never provided an opportunity to make a best and final offer.”
The new contracts have the potential to upend parts of the Medicaid program because, in some instances, existing providers would be eliminated.
AHCA has announced that it will begin transitioning Medicaid patients in South Florida from their existing HMOs to new managed-care plans in December.
Ecenia’s announcement came in lieu of his opening statement in what is expected to be a multi-day hearing on challenges to the contracting decisions.
While Magellan is withdrawing its challenge, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the South Florida Community Care Network continue to challenge state decisions.
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