Since January 2020, Medicaid (Apple Health) integrated managed care has been available statewide. This has allowed Medicaid services (medical, mental health and substance use disorder treatment) to be coordinated through a single Medicaid managed care health plan (MCO). As part of the integrated managed care process, the state is divided into 10 regions. Two regions (King and North Sound) are served by all five MCOs. The other eight are served by a combination of three or four MCOs.
The state has found that Medicaid enrollees were finding it challenging to access mental health and substance use disorder treatment in many of the eight regions served by less than five MCOs. To address this, the HCA announced that starting in 2021, North Central will now include Community Health Plan of Washington (a total of four MCOs will serve the region); Pierce will now include Community Health Plan of Washington (a total of all five MCOs will serve the region); and Southwest will now include Coordinated Care (a total of four MCOs will serve the region).
