Meridian officials tell Henry County council Anthem will end Medicaid contract, risking local access

Meridian Health Services officials told the Henry County council that Anthem has notified Meridian it will terminate the organization's Medicaid contract at the end of July, a change Meridian warned could force patients to seek care elsewhere.

"They were going to be terminating our Medicaid contract," Lisa Subtle, regional vice president for Meridian, said at the July meeting. Meridian estimated the Anthem action would affect about 400 patients in Henry County and roughly 11,000 patients across its nearly 40-county service area.

Meridian CEO Seth Warren described the organization as a federally qualified health center and community mental health center that provides a mix of primary care, behavioral health, substance-use treatment and related social supports. He and Subtle said many Meridian patients rely on Medicaid and that the clinic has a sliding-fee scale for uninsured patients.

Subtle said Anthem gave "no cause" for the termination and that Meridian is negotiating with the insurer while pursuing legal review and contacting state lawmakers and the governor's office. "We're working through legal recourse as well as continuing conversations with Anthem to try to get them to reconsider," she said.

Meridian officials said Anthem representatives told them the insurer believes its network can treat displaced patients. Councilors and Meridian staff noted that for some patients the nearest in-network alternatives would be travel times of more than an hour, placing care out of reach for people with transportation or childcare constraints.

Meridian asked the council and constituents to contact Anthem and state legislators to press for continuity-of-care protections for active treatment patients and for reconsideration of the network change. Subtle described options such as continuity-of-care exceptions and "just cause" switches for patients in active treatment, but cautioned those paths are limited and not automatic.

Meridian also highlighted programs that could be disrupted, including medication-assisted treatment, mobile crisis support, group-home placements, jail re-entry Vivitrol initiation (starting June 15 at the local jail) and connections to state hospital care for competency and civil-commitment cases.

The council did not take formal action during the presentation. Meridian said it would continue negotiations with Anthem, consult with attorneys, and press legislators and state officials to protect patients' access to care.