ST.
LOUIS, March 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/
-- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) ("Centene") announced today
it has been awarded the Innovation Award for Health Equity by the
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The award
recognizes Centene's data-driven Health Equity Improvement Model
for being a leading-edge strategy for improving health equity and
healthcare quality through innovative and creative solutions.
Centene's four-step Health Equity Improvement Model features a
public health framework that integrates quantitative and
qualitative data to help identify barriers and design initiatives
across community, member, and provider levels. The model was
successfully implemented in multiple markets across the enterprise,
resulting in reductions in Healthcare Effectiveness Data and
Information Set (HEDIS) disparities, including:
- improved colorectal cancer screening rates for American
Indian/Alaska Native members with Arizona Complete Health
- improved rates of immunizations for Latino child members with
Nevada's SilverSummit Health
Plan
- improved maternal health outcomes among African American and
Black members with California's
Health Net.
"Advancing health equity has a real and positive impact on the
health of our members across the country," said Sarah Bezeredi, Senior Vice President and Chief
Quality Officer for Centene. "We are honored to have Centene
recognized for implementing these leading strategies that continue
to improve the value of our high-quality, affordable care, and we
remain committed to addressing these challenges for all our members
and communities."
Rooted in Centene's purpose to transform the health of our local
communities, the Health Equity model is focused on community
engagement and leverages the voices of community coalitions to
align strategies throughout the process. The data-driven approach
uses community feedback and trusted messengers to design
initiatives to improve member lives and promote health equity
across the United States.
"By using a data-driven process, we are identifying disparity
reduction opportunities and tracking performance and success
year-over-year. This informs our efforts and strategies for
creating community-specific training, outreach, and social
determinants of health (SDOH) integration interventions so we can
serve our communities, members, and providers with the highest
quality of equitable care," said Bezeredi.
Given the success of the model, Centene plans to implement its
Health Equity Improvement Model across the enterprise.
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving
healthcare quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of
healthcare organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and
practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare
Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely
used performance measurement tool in healthcare. NCQA's website
(ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and
others make informed healthcare choices.
About Centene Corporation
Centene Corporation, a
Fortune 25 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, the TRICARE program, and
individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves
several international markets, and 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 completed and future
acquisitions, including statements about the impact of our recently
completed acquisition of Magellan Health (the Magellan
Acquisition), other recent and future acquisitions and
dispositions, 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
accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other
operating expenses and reserves, including fluctuations in medical
utilization rates due to the impact of COVID-19; the risk that the
election of new directors, changes in senior management and
inability to retain key personnel may create uncertainty or
negatively impact our ability to execute quickly and
effectively; uncertainty as to the expected financial
performance of the combined company following the recent completion
of the Magellan Acquisition; the possibility that the expected
synergies and value creation from the Magellan Acquisition or the
WellCare Acquisition (or other acquired businesses) will not be
realized, or will not be realized within the respective expected
time periods; the risk that unexpected costs will be
incurred in connection with the integration of the Magellan
Acquisition or that the integration of Magellan Health will be more
difficult or time consuming than expected, or similar risks from
other acquisitions we may announce or complete from time to time;
disruption from the integration of the Magellan Acquisition or from
the integration of the WellCare Acquisition, or similar risks from
other acquisitions we may announce or complete from time to time,
including potential adverse reactions or changes to business
relationships with customers, employees, suppliers or regulators,
making it more difficult to maintain business and operational
relationships; a downgrade of the credit rating of our
indebtedness; competition; membership and revenue
declines or unexpected trends; changes in
healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in
medicine; increased healthcare
costs; 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 that may
result from changing political conditions, the new administration
or judicial actions; rate cuts or other payment reductions or
delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties
affecting our government businesses; our ability to adequately
price products; 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 Envolve Pharmacy
Solutions, Inc. (Envolve), as our pharmacy benefits manager (PBM)
subsidiary, within the reserve estimate we have recorded and on
other acceptable terms, or at all, or whether additional claims,
reviews or investigations relating to our PBM business will be
brought by states, the federal government or shareholder litigants,
or government investigations; timing and extent of benefits from
strategic value creation initiatives, including the possibility
that these initiatives will not be successful, or will not be
realized within the expected time periods; 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; changes in expected closing
dates, estimated purchase price and accretion for acquisitions; the
risk that acquired businesses will not be integrated
successfully; restrictions and limitations in
connection with our indebtedness; 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; availability of debt and equity financing, on terms
that are favorable to us; inflation; 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