(Image: Allison Bell/TA)
Officials in Florida and New York state have made moves that could help shore up part of the Affordable Care Act public exchange system in 2019.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has awarded Medicaid managed care contracts in two regions to a Florida-based unit of Molina Healthcare Inc.
In New York state, the New York attorney general has approved efforts by Centene Corp. to acquire the assets of New York State Catholic Health Plan Inc., which does business as Fidelis Care.
Molina is a publicly traded insurer based in Long Beach, California, that has focused on the Medicaid plan market. The company has offered ACA public exchange plans in most of the states in which it offers managed Medicaid plan coverage, in an effort to provide coverage suitable for people who bounce back and forth between qualifying for Medicaid and qualifying for highly subsidized ACA public exchange plan coverage.
Centene is a St. Louis-based company that has also focused on the Medicaid plan market. Like Molina, it has been an active player in both the Medicaid plan and the ACA public exchange plan markets.
Florida has had more ACA exchange plan enrollees than any other states, but it has had only one or two carriers in most counties.
Molina executives said in May, during a conference call with securities analyst, that the company might withdraw from the Florida ACA exchange program if the company lost the ability to sell managed Medicaid plans in Florida.
