Dive Brief:
- After announcing plans to acquire Arizona's Care1st operations for about $157.5 million, WellCare Health Plans received National Committee for Quality Assurance accreditation statuses of commendable for its Kentucky Medicaid health plan and of accredited for its Medicare Advantage (MA) plan in the state.
- Care1st, an affiliate of Blue Shield of California, offers Medicaid, MA HMO, and Dual Eligible plans.
- Payers with experience in managed care markets such as WellCare are seeing some of the most success on insurance exchanges.
Dive Insight:
Managed care plans are known more for being bare bones than they are for delivering high quality care. However, payers willing to focus on these products are enjoying success in the ACA era.
As larger payers like UnitedHealthcare and Aetna back out of insurance exchanges, others like WellCare are taking advantage of the opportunity. WellCare's move to acquire Care1st Health Plan affiliates in Arizona, covering approximately 114,000 patients, indicates that at least some insurers still see promise in Medicaid expansion under the ACA. It also suggests the insurer is investing in the country's aging population.
While there is a lot of discussion around payers exiting ACA exchanges, others are using them and Medicaid expansion as an opportunity to expand their business. Payers with experience administering narrow network plans have been profitable on the ACA exchanges. By improving their bread-and-butter plans and offering high-quality products, companies like WellCare could continue to see success in the future.