Fred Eppinger
to assume role of Chairman of the Centene Board
Wayne DeVeydt
to assume role of Chairman of the Audit and Compliance
Committee
Orlando Ayala,
Richard Gephardt and William Trubeck to retire from the Board
effective May 10, 2023
ST.
LOUIS, April 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today that Fred Eppinger will assume the role of Chairman
of the Centene Board of Directors, and Wayne DeVeydt will assume the role of Chairman
of the Audit and Compliance Committee. Both changes are effective
as of March 31, 2023.
"With over 30 years of executive and insurance industry
experience and a deep knowledge of Centene, Fred Eppinger is dedicated to accelerating the
important work underway to transform the health of the communities
we serve. His leadership will help ensure Centene delivers value to
our shareholders while remaining anchored in our long-standing
mission to serve the underserved," said Sarah M. London, Chief Executive Officer of
Centene. "I also look forward to Wayne's continued contributions to
the Board from his new role as we continue to enhance our capital
deployment strategy and position the company for long-term
growth."
Mr. Eppinger currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of
Stewart Information Services Company and previously served as Chief
Executive Officer of Hanover Insurance Group, Inc., where he led
Hanover from a regional enterprise
to a global property and casualty carrier.
James Dallas announced on
August 1, 2022 he would retire as
Chairman of the Board prior to the 2023 Annual Meeting of
Stockholders. Mr. Dallas will remain on the Centene Board of
Directors and serve as a member of the Audit and Compliance and the
Value Creation Committees. In addition, and as previously
announced, Orlando Ayala,
Richard Gephardt and William Trubeck will retire from the Board on
May 10, 2023.
"I want to thank James for guiding the Centene Board of
Directors through a significant evolution of the company's
governance structure," said London. "His support and leadership
have been instrumental in executing on this important work, and I
am grateful for his continued service to the company."
"I would also like to thank Orlando, Dick and Bill for their
contributions to the company's success over the years," added
London. "Their leadership and guidance have helped Centene build a
strong and successful platform across government-sponsored
healthcare programs while positioning the company for long-term
success."
About Centene Corporation
Centene Corporation, a
Fortune 500 company, is a leading healthcare enterprise that is
committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes
a local approach – with local brands and local teams – to provide
fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to
government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing
on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers
affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals
across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members
(including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals
and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace and the
TRICARE program. The Company also contracts with other healthcare
and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty
services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on
long-term growth and value creation as well as the development of
its people, systems, and capabilities so that it can better serve
its members, providers, local communities, and government
partners.
Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important
information about the Company, including information that may be
deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about
Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor
relations website, https://investors.centene.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements, other
than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this
press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the
foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as
"believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend,"
"seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could,"
"should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions
(and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we)
intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the
safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are
including this statement for purposes of complying with these
safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include,
without limitation, statements about our future operating or
financial performance, market opportunity, value creation strategy,
competition, expected activities in connection with completed and
future acquisitions and dispositions, our investments, and the
adequacy of our available cash resources. These forward-looking
statements reflect our current views with respect to future events
and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in
light of our experience and perception of historical trends,
current conditions, business strategies, operating environments,
future developments, and other factors we believe appropriate. By
their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they
relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the
future, including economic, regulatory, competitive, and other
factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels
of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different
from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or
achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. These statements are not guarantees of future
performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and
assumptions. All forward-looking statements included in this press
release are based on information available to us on the date
hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no
obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements
included in this press release, whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise, after the date hereof.
You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking
statements, as actual results may differ materially from
projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to
a variety of important factors, variables, and events including,
but not limited to: our ability to design and price products that
are competitive and/or actuarially sound including but not limited
to any impacts resulting from Medicaid redeterminations; our
ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or
achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can
impact revenue and future growth; our ability to accurately predict
and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses
and reserves, including fluctuations in medical utilization rates;
competition, including our ability to reprocure our contracts and
grow organically; the timing and extent of benefits from our value
creation strategy, including the possibility that the benefits
received may be lower than expected, may not occur, or will not be
realized within the expected time periods; disruption, unexpected
costs, or similar risks from business transactions, including
acquisitions, divestitures, and changes in our relationships with
third parties; impairments to real estate, investments, goodwill,
and intangible assets; the risk that the election of new directors,
changes in senior management, and any inability to retain key
personnel may create uncertainty or negatively impact our ability
to execute quickly and effectively; membership and revenue declines
or unexpected trends; rate cuts or other payment reductions or
delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties
affecting our government businesses; changes in healthcare
practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased
healthcare costs; inflation; changes in economic, political, or
market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations,
including changes with respect to income tax reform or government
healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and
Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (collectively referred
to as the ACA) and any regulations enacted thereunder; tax matters;
disasters or major epidemics; changes in expected contract start
dates; provider, state, federal, foreign, and other contract
changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the
expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with
federal or state governments (including, but not limited to,
Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, or other customers); the difficulty of
predicting the timing or outcome of legal or regulatory proceedings
or matters, including, but not limited to, our ability to resolve
claims and/or allegations made by states with regard to past
practices, including at Centene Pharmacy Services (formerly Envolve
Pharmacy Solutions, Inc. (Envolve)), as our pharmacy benefits
manager (PBM) subsidiary, within the reserve estimate we previously
recorded and on other acceptable terms, or at all, or whether
additional claims, reviews or investigations will be brought by
states, the federal government or shareholder litigants, or
government investigations; challenges to our contract awards;
cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the
exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses
incurred and business changes required in connection with complying
with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory,
governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions
or dispositions; any changes in expected closing dates, estimated
purchase price, and accretion for acquisitions or dispositions;
restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; a
downgrade of the credit rating of our indebtedness; the
availability of debt and equity financing on terms that are
favorable to us; foreign currency fluctuations; and risks and
uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. This list of important
factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of
these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may
affect our business operations, financial condition, and results of
operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K,
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due
to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances
with respect to our future performance, including without
limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our
ability to control our future medical and selling, general and
administrative costs.
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SOURCE Centene Corporation