Three health insurers with headquarters or major operations in the Hartford area have been awarded contracts to provide medical benefits to Arizona’s state employees, university employees and retirees, according to a published report.
Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare all received a piece of the business, while AmeriBen, an employee benefits administrator based in Boise, Idaho, is using the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona provider network, according to an online report by the Phoenix Business Journal.
Aetna is based in Hartford. Philadephia-based Cigna has operations in Bloomfield. UnitedHealth, headquartered in Minnesota, has operations in Hartford.
Beginning Oct. 1, they’ll all get a portion of the state contract that enrolls an estimated 135,000 members and spends about $750 million each year. State employees will choose from each plan, based on benefits offered by each plan.
Jim Hertel, publisher of Arizona Managed Care Newsletter, said it was a controversial bidding process.
UnitedHealthcare had the contract last year, and now is sharing it with the other three.
This “will make it more challenging for new plans to win significant enrollment for the coming benefit year,” Hertel said.
