Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana | Fall | 2008 | Health Plan Analysis

The list of health plans leaving the Ohio Medicaid managed care program continues to grow with WellPoint Inc. leaving the program entirely and WellCare and Centene Corp. pulling their managed care organizations out of a portion of the eight Medicaid regions in the state. All three publicly held managed care companies said they had lost money on the program serving the aged, blind and disabled portion and WellPoint also attributed losses to the mothers-and-children portion of Medicaid. Commercial HMO enrollment, meanwhile, continues to tumble in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana while managed care enrollment in state-sponsored programs is growing. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio, the Kroger grocery chain and the city of Cincinnati are participating in a pharmacist-centered disease management program targeted city employees who have diabetes. The program uses pharmacists employed at Kroger to help the diabetics better control their disease. In Indiana, a new Medicare HMO, Clarian Health Plans, is selling four plan designs in the Indianapolis area for 2009. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the State Children's Health Insurance Program is more aggressively promoting the program to eligible families.