KentuckyOne Health has sent notice of termination of all contracts with CoventryCares of Kentucky which operates as a Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) under contract with the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services. These terminations will be effective for the former Saint Joseph Health System facilities on December 1, 2012, and for the former Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare on November 1, 2012.

CoventryCares is one of four MCOs providing managed Medicaid services for Kentucky Medicaid recipients. KentuckyOne Health is and will continue to be contracted to participate with Kentucky Spirit, Wellcare and Passport.

On April 27, 2012, Our Lady of Peace, part of KentuckyOne Health, received a letter of termination effective July 18, 2012 from CoventryCares, through their contractor, MHNet Behavioral Health for Our Lady of Peace services.

Our Lady of Peace works with all four MCOs to provide access to the unique services they offer for a very high risk patient population with intellectual disabilities. Many of the children served by Our Lady of Peace have no other facility to meet their highly specialized mental and behavioral health needs. In addition, 75 percent of patients at Our Lady of Peace are children and adolescents, many of which have developmental delays with dual diagnosis.

In addition, CoventryCares terminated the contract with Taylor Regional Hospital, one of KentuckyOne’s managed facilities, also without cause. KentuckyOne leadership strongly believes that Medicaid recipients in the Commonwealth should have access to quality health care via a comprehensive network of provider and community organizations in order to achieve improved health outcomes. We feel CoventryCare’s actions will ultimately hinder and prevent the care our communities need and deserve. That is especially true when a plan would put our most vulnerable patient populations at Our Lady of Peace (children and adults with complex mental health needs) at risk.