Subsidiaries of Health Net, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) and Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office to dispute the Defense Health Agency’s Tricare services contract awards, Federal News Radio reported Monday.
Health Net and Humana (NYSE: HUM) won separate contracts in July to provide managed care services to beneficiaries of the DHA’s Tricare program in the West and East regions.
Humana’s East region contract has a potential ceiling value of $40.5 billion, while Health Net’s West region contract has a total value of $17.7 billion with a nine-month base term and five one-year options.
Jared Serbu reports Health Net’s federal services business, which was selected out of three firms that submitted proposals for the T-2017 contract’s West region, said in its complaint with GAO that it should have won the East region contract.
UnitedHealth Military and Veterans, a UnitedHealth subsidiary, also lodged protests with GAO to challenge the contract awards for the East and West regions, while Anthem’s WellPoint Military Care protested the East region contract award to Humana.
The report said the Defense Department merged the North and South regions to create the East region for the new round of contracts.
Health Net currently manages the Tricare program’s North region, while Humana and UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans respectively oversee the South and West regions, Serbu added.
