From state behavioral health services to a hospital administrative partnership, these are three Optum contracts reported by Becker's that have recently ended or are planned to end.
Maryland replaced Optum with Elevance Health's Carelon to administer mental health and substance use disorder services under its public behavioral health system, which goes into effect in 2025. Optum did not submit a bid to be considered for the new contract.
SSM Health and Optum ended their administrative partnership around inpatient care management, digital transformation and revenue cycle management after the two organizations were not able to meet "mutually agreed-upon expectations." In an Aug. 21 internal memo obtained by Becker's, SSM President and CEO Laura Kaiser told the system's hospital care management and RCM teams that the termination was a difficult decision but was "in the best interest of our patients, families and team members."
Idaho did not award Optum another managed care contract for its behavioral health plan and instead awarded a four-year, $1.2 billion contract to Centene's Magellan Healthcare subsidiary. Optum has held the state's behavioral contract for a decade. Magellan's new contract has a service start date of March 1.