Current Wellcare President & CEO,
Richard Fisher, will join the
Operations leadership team under Centene Chief Operating Officer
Susan Smith, bringing additional
Medicare expertise into Centene's core services operations
ST.
LOUIS, Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise committed
to helping people live healthier lives, today announced two
appointments. Michael A. Carson
joins Centene as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its
Medicare business, Wellcare. Mr. Carson will be responsible for
Medicare business performance, strategy and growth and will report
to Centene President Ken Fasola.
Carson succeeds Richard Fisher, who
has been appointed to the Operations leadership team under Centene
Chief Operating Officer Susan Smith.
Mr. Fisher will have responsibility for key financial and
operational processes across Shared Services, as well as lead
enterprise development, management and optimization of Centene's
key vendor partnerships.
Mr. Carson brings nearly three decades of seasoned leadership,
operational and industry expertise in both the payer and provider
space with a deep focus on and expertise in serving Medicare and
dual-eligible populations. As the CEO of value-based primary and
multi-specialty care start-up CareAbout, he led a fully delegated,
risk-bearing Medicare and dual-eligible-focused care delivery
organization. Mr. Carson also served as the CEO of Bright Health
Plan and as the President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
He led the formation and rebuilding of Medicare businesses at both
Amerigroup and Anthem, as well as served in transformative
leadership roles at ConcertoHealth and other Blue Cross Blue Shield
plans. Mr. Carson started his career in the United States Air Force, where he served
for almost a decade before transitioning to corporate roles.
"We are excited for Michael to join the team and look forward to
leveraging his extensive knowledge and expertise for the benefit of
our Medicare business. He will be a strong addition to the Wellcare
team and its efforts to advance the health of the members we
serve," said Centene CEO, Sarah M.
London. "I am also excited that we will benefit from Rich's
deep Medicare expertise as we continue to fortify our core service
operations and build a partner ecosystem to best serve our members
across our lines of business."
"Centene's longstanding commitment to be the leading provider of
member-focused quality care and services is unmatched and I'm
excited to support the company's mission to transform the health of
the communities it serves," said Carson. "I look forward to helping
guide the Medicare business to realize its full potential, driving
further innovation and growth as we collaborate with our Medicaid
and Marketplace businesses and key provider and member services
partners."
Mr. Carson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business
Administration from the University of
Phoenix. He serves as Non-Executive Board Chair of HYKE, and
as an Advisory Board Member of both Foodsmart and OneHealth.
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; 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