ST.
LOUIS, April 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise
committed to helping people live healthier lives, announced today
that its subsidiary, Meridian in Michigan (Meridian), has been selected by the
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to
continue to serve as a Medicaid health plan for the Comprehensive
Health Care Program, which serves nearly 2 million Michiganders
statewide. The proposed Medicaid contracts are expected to begin on
October 1, 2024, and run through
September 30, 2029, with three,
one-year optional extensions.
"It's an honor to continue Meridian's decades of serving the
people of Michigan," said Centene
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sarah
London. "We are grateful to MDHHS for putting our
communities and Medicaid members at the center of this process. We
look forward to working with our local partners to continue to
deliver access to high-quality care while keeping the perspective
of our members at the forefront."
Founded in 1997, Meridian has 27 years of experience developing
and maintaining a Medicaid network in Michigan. Centene manages Medicaid contracts
across 31 states. Meridian was selected to serve 44 counties in the
Lower Peninsula and will be one of nine Medicaid managed care
organizations providing physical, dental, pharmacy, prescription
and transportation services.
"We are excited to have the opportunity to continue supporting
the healthcare needs of Medicaid members across the state," said
Meridian CEO, Chris Priest. "For 27
years, Meridian has been a leader in Michigan pioneering innovative, equitable care
solutions that help our members live better, healthier lives. We
look forward to building on our existing efforts and community
partnerships to increase access, improve health outcomes and
address social needs for members statewide."
The rebidding process and priorities for the Medicaid contract
in Michigan were driven by
feedback from nearly 10,000 stakeholders across the state,
including enrollees and family members, healthcare providers,
health plans and other community partners, as part of the
MIHealthyLife initiative to provide quality, comprehensive
healthcare. As a result of feedback from Michiganders, MDHHS
required health plans to commit to and invest in key
pillars to "create a more equitable, coordinated, and
person-centered system of care." Meridian's contract bid
highlighted its past and ongoing commitments in the areas
Michiganders said they care about most, including child and
whole-person health, health equity, innovation, community impact
and operational excellence.
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/.
About Meridian
Meridian in Michigan provides
government-sponsored managed care services to families, children,
seniors, and individuals with complex medical needs primarily
through Medicaid (Meridian), Medicare Advantage and Medicare
Prescription Drug Plans (Wellcare), Medicare-Medicaid Plans
(MeridianComplete), and the Health Insurance Marketplace (Ambetter
from Meridian). Meridian is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene
Corporation, a leading healthcare enterprise committed to helping
people live healthier lives.
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 and terms, our future operating or
financial performance, market opportunity, 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 for providers, broker
distribution networks, contract reprocurements and organic growth;
our ability to adequately anticipate demand and provide for
operational resources to maintain service level requirements; 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 and interest rates; the
effect of social, economic, and political conditions and
geopolitical events, including as a result of changes in U.S.
presidential administrations or Congress; changes in 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; uncertainty
concerning government shutdowns, debt ceilings or funding; tax
matters; disasters, climate-related incidents, acts of war or
aggression or major epidemics; changes in expected contract start
dates; changes in provider, broker, vendor, 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 or
other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or
outcome of legal or regulatory audits, investigations, 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
reported 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 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; losses in our investment portfolio; restrictions and
limitations in connection with our indebtedness; a downgrade of our
corporate family rating, issuer rating or credit rating of our
indebtedness; the availability of debt and equity financing on
terms that are favorable to us 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