The Iowa Department of Human Services has issued a notice of intent to award contracts to four bidders for Gov. Terry Branstad’s Medicaid Modernization initiative. The bidders announced Monday are Amerigroup Iowa Inc., AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa Inc., UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., and WellCare of Iowa Inc. The state received 11 bids from potential vendors, with one withdrawing. The initiative aims to move toward a risk-based managed care approach for the state’s Medicaid program, which serves about 560,000 Iowa residents. The cost of delivering Medicaid has grown 73 percent since 2003 at more than $4.2 billion in the last fiscal year, including $1.39 billion in state general fund taxpayer dollars.The new program, to be called the IA Health Link, begins Jan. 1. The agency plans a targeted communications campaign about upcoming enrollment and programs.