Aetna Better Health, the managed care subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna, filed a notice of intent to terminate its four Medicaid contracts with Illinois due to $698 million in outstanding payments.
Here are four things to know.
1. Illinois' more than two-year budget gridlock resulted in $2 billion in owed Medicaid payments to healthcare organizations. State lawmakers ended the stalemate Thursday by overriding a budget veto by Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.
2. Aetna Better Health's notice stated if it "is compelled to exercise its termination rights under the state contracts, it would do so with the hope that those terminations would ultimately be unnecessary upon an interceding, mutually agreeable resolution of the pending Medicaid-funding crisis before year end — either through a fiscal year 2018 budget or through state compliance with this court's orders."
3. If Aetna Better Health terminated its contracts, 235,000 Illinois Medicaid beneficiaries would be required to move to another health plan.
4. In response to passage of a state budget Thursday, Aetna spokesperson T.J. Crawford told Becker's Hospital Review the company will "continue to monitor and evaluate our options."