New Mexico’s Centennial Care Medicaid program is turning into a jobs machine.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico said Wednesday it is in the process of hiring more than 400 new employees to serve its Medicaid members.
Molina Healthcare of New Mexico and UnitedHealthcare each announced hiring in the past week, adding up to about 460 jobs between the two companies, to handle the new Medicaid contracts that take effect Jan. 1. Molina will hire 400, and United 64 new employees.
Blue Cross has posted 153 new jobs in the past 30 days, most of them related to Centennial Care, and anticipates hiring another 250 by the end of the year, said company spokeswoman Becky Kenny.
Blue Cross CEO Kurt Shipley said Medicaid expansion, staffing requirements under the new Medicaid contracts and the shifting of patients from two insurers that currently serve Medicaid patients but didn’t win new contracts account for much of the new hiring.
So does the fact that the four insurers that were chosen to participate in the $4 billion state/federal Medicaid program now have to provide behavioral health services to patients. Under the current contracts, behavioral health services are provided by a separate carrier.
Blue Cross has 33,000 Medicaid members; Molina 91,000; and Presbyterian Health Plan 165,000.
Lovelace Health Plan has 74,000 Medicaid members but will lose them on Jan. 1 because it was not chosen to be part of Centennial Care.
“We are looking forward to being part of Centennial Care and think we will have great opportunities for expansion and picking up members from those who will no longer be in the program, so it is a big deal for us,” Shipley said.
Date: Jun 5, 2013