A mass termination of Virginia’s behavioral healthcare providers is now underway by managed care organizations.
More than 100 Medicaid behavioral healthcare providers in Virginia are being terminated without cause this week by managed care organizations (MCOs), according to Knicole Emanuel, a healthcare attorney.
Emanuel, working in Richmond, believes the terminations were premediated, with the intent to put those organizations out of business, opening in an email to RACmonitor that the MCOs would prefer to deal with fewer healthcare providers than “100 small providers.”
Emanuel added that the MCOs technically can’t terminate providers, with or without cause.
Approximately 1.5 million adults and 126,000 youths in Virginia have a mental health diagnosis, according to a statement on the website of Caliber Virginia, formerly known as the Association for Community-Based Service Providers, an advocacy association for the state’s mental and behavioral healthcare providers.
RACmonitor will continue to report on this developing story with an exclusive article in Thursday’s edition of the RACmonitor news, reported by Emanuel, a member of the RACmonitor editorial board.
