Still No Signature From Supervisors On MCO Contract

A very short deadline and too many blank spaces on a contract between one of the new Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa, and Carroll County Case Management had left the supervisors leery of signing before having the document reviewed by Carroll County Attorney John Werden. In an attempt to meet today’s (Tuesday) submission deadline set by the MCO, the results of the review were brought before the supervisors at Monday’s meeting. Werden said this draft of the contract was much better than what was presented previously, but he has concerns about the indemnification clause included.

Werden added that his preference would be to remove the specific language and replace it with the statement, “indemnification as provided by law.” He also suggested that Carroll County Case Management Supervisor, Justin Shieffer, contact other counties and submit this suggestion as a united front. The supervisors discussed the need to ensure that any payment rates inserted in the blank areas of the contract be carefully calculated and based on actual charges, so they are not shortchanged on covering program costs. Shieffer said they could look at the fee options in two ways, either good or bad.

Schieffer said by taking their costs and dividing it by the units of service from last year, they can get to actual costs. He added so far, Buena Vista County has taken the same approach as Carroll County and submitted credentialing only. Sac and Cherokee Counties are holding off submission of anything. AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa has said things are not going as planned, and so the deadline is now more flexible. The supervisors agreed to review the contract and rate amounts at next week’s meeting.