ST.
LOUIS, May 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise
committed to helping people live healthier lives, announced today
that the Kansas Department of Administration has selected its
Kansas-based subsidiary, Sunflower
Health Plan (Sunflower) to continue providing managed health
care services through KanCare, the State
of Kansas' Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program
(CHIP). The new three-year contract is expected to take effect on
January 1, 2025, with the option to
renew for up to two, 12-month extensions.
Sunflower currently serves more than 141,000 Kansans statewide,
including more than 7,900 Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)
members. Through its unique coordinated care model, Sunflower
supports health equity and facilitates person-centered care, access
to services and providers and improved outcomes for members and
communities across the state. With this award, Sunflower is one of
three Medicaid managed care organizations selected to provide
services through KanCare.
"We are honored to continue our more than a decade-long history
of serving people who depend on Medicaid in Kansas," said Centene Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), Sarah M. London. "Looking
ahead, we are thrilled to deliver on the State's renewed focus on
integrated, whole-person care and innovative strategies to best
support members and providers. We look forward to continuing our
strong partnership with the state and contributing further to the
health and wellness of KanCare members."
Centene is a national leader in the provision of programs and
related services under Medicaid, CHIP and other government-funded
programs. Its affiliates service more than 13 million Medicaid
members across 31 states and comprise the largest managed LTSS
footprint nationwide, with more than 169,000 managed LTSS members
in 12 states and 26,500 members with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
"We are grateful for the privilege to continue partnering with
the State of Kansas to further
reduce healthcare disparities and improve health outcomes through
holistic and integrated care," said Sunflower Plan President and
CEO, Michael Stephens. "Aligning
with the state's collaborative vision for the next iteration of
KanCare, Sunflower is prepared and enthusiastic to play a vital
role in contributing to the health, wellness and independence of
individuals with long-term and special
needs."
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 Sunflower Health Plan
Sunflower Health
Plan ("Sunflower") is a managed care organization
established to deliver quality healthcare in the state of
Kansas through local, regional and
community-based resources, and a wholly owned subsidiary of
the Centene Corporation (NYSE:
CNC). Sunflower is committed to improving the
health of its beneficiaries through focused, compassionate, and
coordinated care in an approach based on the core belief that
quality healthcare is best delivered locally. For more
information, please visit
www.sunflowerhealthplan.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 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 on 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.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centene-subsidiary-sunflower-health-plan-selected-for-kansas-medicaid-award-302145395.html
SOURCE CENTENE CORPORATION