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DES MOINES — Officials announced Tuesday that nearly 215,000 Medicaid enrollees served by AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa under the state’s privately managed system will be transferred to UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley by the end of this month.

However, officials with the Iowa Department of Human Services said AmeriHealth customers who would rather switch to the Amerigroup Iowa managed care organization instead can do so by Nov. 16 and be eligible for coverage Dec. 1. Otherwise, clients have 90 days — until March 1 — to finalize their choices.

The massive swap is because the state and AmeriHealth failed after weeks of talks to agree on a deal for the company to continue being one of Iowa’s three managed care companies.

Department Director Jerry Foxhoven told members of the Medicaid Assistance Advisory Council that a process to find a replacement for AmeriHealth — the Medicaid insurer with the largest concentration of the state’s speci al-needs population — is proceeding. But the new insurer won’t be available to Iowans until July 1, 2019.

The developments came to light Tuesday in a sometimes-contentious meeting in which Foxhoven described the transition as a “scramble” that the system will manage but that Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, called “reckless” in suggesting a delay.