By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Dec. 13
The state”s HealthWave contract will not be re-bid.
In a 24-page ruling Wednesday, Shawnee County District Court Judge David Bruns said the state Division of Purchases did nothing wrong when it awarded the managed care contract to Children”s Mercy Family Health Partners and UniCare Health Plan of Kansas, Inc.
Earlier, FirstGuard Health Plan of Kansas filed a lawsuit accusing the Division of Purchases of bungling the bid-letting process.
The company asked the court to order a second round of bidding.
But Bruns said the process had been handled fairly. He cited several Kansas Supreme Court rulings that discourage lower courts from second-guessing state decision-making processes.
State records show that FirstGuard”s bid was $15.6 million more than UniCare”s. The five-year contracts the state approved are worth $250 million per year.
Currently, HealthWave programs
Medicaid and the State Children”s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) underwrite health care for 160,000 pregnant women and children in poor families.
The new contracts begin Jan. 1. UniCare and Children”s Mercy will compete for roughly 145,000 HealthWave patients in the eastern two-thirds of the state.
UniCare will be the sole managed-care contractor for 15,000 patients in 31 counties in western Kansas.
Spokesmen for Centene Corp., of which FirstGuard was a unit,
later said they would not appeal the judge’s decision. Centene also announced it would shut down its FirstGuard operations in
Kansas and Missouri.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.