Clayton-based Centene wins Missouri Medicaid contract [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Feb. 22--Centene Corp. has won a major contract to manage the health care and behavioral health services of as many as 427,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in the state of Missouri, the Clayton-based company announced today.

Missouri's program is considered a $1.3 billion market in terms of total Medicaid-related expenditures. But Centene did not release an actual contract value, and company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Centene is the nation's fourth-largest Medicaid contractor, and among the most successful companies in the region, with about 5,300 employees nationwide, including more than 900 in the St. Louis area. With the award of the Missouri contract, those numbers are expected to grow.

The managed care company's subsidiary, Home State Health Plan, was chosen by Missouri officials after submitting a competitive bid to provide services in the state's 54 counties.

"We expect to commence operations in the third quarter of this year," Centene said in a news release.

Centene will provide coordinated healthcare and behavioral health services to Medicaid enrollees including those receiving benefits under categories of aid for parents and caretakers, children, newborns, pregnant women and refugees. It will also provide services for children in the care and custody of the state pending adoption, and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

"We are honored to be awarded a Medicaid managed care contract to begin serving managed care members here in Missouri," said Jesse Hunter in the release. Hunter earlier this week was named Centene's executive vice president of operations of Centene. "We believe our strategic provider partnerships in Missouri will help us deliver improved health outcomes for our members at a lower cost for the state."

"For more than 15 years, we have called Missouri home to our corporate headquarters. We have added hundreds of jobs and made significant investments into the region," said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Centene, in the release. "We embrace the opportunity to bring our award-winning quality programs and healthcare services to our most vulnerable neighbors across the state."

Centene lobbied hard for the Missouri Medicaid contract. It has fielded a dozen registered lobbyists, including attorney Chuck Hatfield, one of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's closest advisers, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. Since January 2006, Centene and its executives have given more than $400,000 in campaign contributions to dozens of Missouri politicians.

A growing number of states have privatized their Medicaid programs, paying fixed per-patient rates and letting contractors assume the risk of rising health care costs.

Centene's network of providers tries to reduce costly use of emergency rooms by encouraging patients to see primary care physicians, take the medications, and pursue healthy lifestyles.

But Centene came under scrutiny last year because one of its affiliated businesses, the embattled Missouri contractor SynCare LLC, was ousted as a state contractor after high-profile failures in delivering eligibility assessments of homebound Medicaid patients. Centene provided nearly $2 million in business loans to SynCare and its owner.

___

(c)2012 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services