Aetna to Sell New Jersey Medicaid HMO
Aetna U.S. Healthcare plans to sell its New Jersey Medicaid HMO and its
NJ FamilyCare plan, part of New Jersey's Children's Health Insurance Program, to AmeriChoice Corp., which runs the third-largest Medicaid health plan in the state, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Under the deal, if approved by the state, Virginia-based AmeriChoice would cover about 118,000 Aetna members. Although Aetna "did not disclose" terms of the agreement, the company said that most members would not have to switch doctors because the majority of physicians in the firm's network also participate in AmeriChoice's system. "We determined that this program can be more effectively managed by an organization such as AmeriChoice ... that has Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare business as its primary focus," Felicia Norwood, regional manager of Aetna's mid-Atlantic region, said. Aetna spokesperson Jennifer King added that recent expansions of New Jersey's Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare programs "prompted the change." The state now requires plans that participate in the programs to operate in all 21 counties, but Aetna operates in only 10. In addition, the state now requires insurers to cover parents and single, low-income adults in addition to children under NJ FamilyCare, King said (Ress, Newark Star-Ledger, 5/5).
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