ST.
LOUIS, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise committed
to helping people live healthier lives, announced today it has been
selected by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) for statewide
contracts to provide managed care for the SoonerSelect and
SoonerSelect Children's Specialty Plan programs.
"We are pleased to partner with the state of Oklahoma as it transitions to Medicaid managed
care through its SoonerSelect program. In collaboration with our
network of providers and local community partners, we look forward
to delivering innovative solutions to address social determinants
of health, remove barriers to care and deliver better health
outcomes for Oklahomans at a lower cost to the state," said
Centene's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sarah M. London.
The SoonerSelect program will provide physical and behavioral
healthcare, as well as pharmacy benefits, to more than 840,000
Oklahoma Medicaid recipients.
The SoonerSelect Children's Specialty plan provides behavioral
health, physical health and pharmacy benefits
to Oklahoma's children served by the Department of Human
Services, including children in foster care and receiving adoption
assistance, as well as those involved in the juvenile justice
system. Centene is the nation's leading managed care provider of
foster care services and brings unparalleled experience in
improving the health outcomes of programs that serve child welfare
and foster care populations.
"As a local health plan whose mission is to transform the health
of our local communities, one person at a time, we remain focused
on partnering with OHCA and building local partnerships with
providers and community organizations to meet the unique challenges
and healthcare needs facing Oklahomans," said Oklahoma Complete
Health's President and CEO, Clayton
Franklin.
"Managed Medicaid in Oklahoma
will provide more access to innovative therapies and lifesaving
care. OU Health serves a significant portion of Oklahoma's patients who will benefit from
Managed Medicaid and we are pleased to partner with Oklahoma
Complete Health in our shared goal of better outcomes for
patients," said President & CEO of OU Health, Richard P. Lofgren, MD, MPH.
The SoonerSelect and SoonerSelect Children's Specialty Plan
Program have a one-year contract term with five, one-year renewal
options.
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 Corporation and its
subsidiaries (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 expected contract start dates, 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
contract changes and delays in the timing of regulatory approval of
contracts, including due to protests; 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