CareSource: An Ohio Success Story

In 1989, community leaders in Dayton asked Pamela Morris to pioneer a new managed care model. That model has since grown into a nonprofit company called CareSource, one of the fastest growing and largest Medicaid managed care companies in the country, a Qualified Health Plan issuer in the Health Insurance Marketplace®, and a key driver of downtown Dayton’s continued revitalization. When CareSource needed more space to accommodate its growth, company officials chose to expand their headquarters in Dayton.

CareSource is one of the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care companies and a leading provider of quality health care plans and programs. Headquartered in Dayton, the $11.2 billion company employs 4,500 people and manages health care for more than half of Ohio’s Medicaid recipients. The nonprofit company also offers health plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace, Medicare Advantage plans, plans for dual-eligible beneficiaries, and programs that link members with vital support services. Together, these programs serve more than two million CareSource members in Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The company will begin serving members in Arkansas in 2022.

CareSource has experienced rapid growth since its beginning. In 2007, the company built its nine-story headquarters in downtown Dayton. To accommodate its employment growth and maintain the company’s commitment to Dayton, CareSource executives announced plans in 2016 to expand the company’s downtown footprint with the construction of a five-story office building, which opened in 2019. Meanwhile, it also renovated another nearby building giving CareSource a downtown campus for its 3,000 Dayton-area employees.

Over the last 10 years CareSource has grown from 1,000 employees to more than 4,500, with most being newly created jobs in Ohio. Dayton has proven to be an outstanding location for CareSource, and the company continues to draw talent from the region’s large, diverse, and well-trained workforce while recruiting new executives to Dayton from across the country. CareSource’s success has led the company to become the major driver of downtown Dayton’s revitalization. A 2020 study conducted by the Center for Economic Development in Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs found that CareSource has a total economic output of nearly $1 billion in the state of Ohio with $468 million in annual economic output impact in Dayton.