ST.
LOUIS, Oct. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC) ("the Company"), a leading healthcare
enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives,
announced today it has named Wade
Rakes its Chief Growth Officer. Mr. Rakes, who currently
serves as Plan President and Chief Executive Officer of Centene's
Georgia-based subsidiary, Peach
State Health Plan ("Peach State"), will leverage his extensive
Medicaid, business development and health plan leadership
experience to support and advance the Company's uniquely local
business model in collaboration with Centene's health plans and
lines of business. Drawing on Centene's mission and expertise, he
will deepen the Company's relationships with members, communities
and partners; drive intentional expansion across existing products;
and identify growth opportunities in new products and markets. Mr.
Rakes will serve both roles until a new Peach State Plan President
and CEO is appointed and will continue to serve as Chair of the
Board of Peach State.
Mr. Rakes brings more than two decades of business and
healthcare industry experience. At Peach State, he led one of the
state's largest insurance plans, providing more than 1.3 million
Georgians with access to high-quality Medicaid, Medicare Advantage
and Marketplace plans. Prior to this role, Mr. Rakes served as
Centene's Regional Vice President, Business Development, Growth and
Expansion, with responsibility for driving more than $5 billion in annualized new business
opportunities as well as overseeing the startup of health plans in
both Pennsylvania and California. He also played a leading role in
the business development and integration work of several key
Centene acquisitions, including Fidelis
Care, Health Net and Wellcare. Mr. Rakes previously served
as the Company's first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
Before joining Centene in 2010, he served as Senior Advisor to the
Governor of Ohio and Director of
Public Liaison for the state. Early in his career he held roles of
increasing responsibility for Showtime Networks.
"Wade is an experienced leader with proven expertise in business
development and market expansion," said Centene's Chief Executive
Officer, Sarah M. London. "His
knowledge of the managed care space coupled with his depth of
experience at Centene will serve him well as he works with partners
and colleagues around the company and across the country to
accelerate our opportunities to serve members in both existing and
new markets."
Mr. Rakes earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from
Princeton University and an MBA from
the University of Michigan. He is a
member of the Board of Directors of the High Museum in Atlanta; the Metro Atlanta Chamber; the LGBTQ+
Victory Fund (Chair); Beyond Differences (Chair); the Board of
Advisors of the James A. Baker III Institute at Rice University; and the President's Advisory
Council at Princeton University.
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, http://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; our ability to manage our information systems
effectively; 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; changes in senior management, loss of one or more key
personnel or an inability to attract, hire, integrate and retain
skilled personnel; 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; changes in
provider, state, federal, foreign, and other contracts 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 terms of our contracts and 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, or accretion
for acquisitions or dispositions, including due to the timing of
regulatory approval for the pending sale of Circle Health Group
(Circle Health); losses in our investment portfolio;
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 (SEC). 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 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