Centene’s Pennsylvania Subsidiary Awarded Medicaid Agreement For The HealthChoices Program

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced that its Pennsylvania subsidiary, Pennsylvania Health & Wellness, has been selected by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to serve Medicaid recipients enrolled in the HealthChoices program in three zones. Pending regulatory approval and successful completion of readiness review, the three-year agreement is expected to commence June 1, 2017. In April, Centene was originally selected to provide services in three zones for HealthChoices. Today's award is in response to a re-issue of the HealthChoices award.

The Department completed an evaluation and scoring of the proposal and has selected Centene's proposal for the Southeast Zone, the Southwest Zone, and the Lehigh Capital Zone of Pennsylvania. The HealthChoices program covers low-income children and families, individuals with disabilities, as well as those newly eligible under the Affordable Care Act expansion throughout the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition to the Health Choices Medicaid award, Centene was previously selected under a separate contract by the departments of Human Services and Aging to serve enrollees in the Community HealthChoices program statewide, pending regulatory approval and successful completion of readiness review. Under this agreement, Pennsylvania Health & Wellness will coordinate physical health and long-term services and supports (LTSS), if needed, to enhance the quality of medical care and access to all appropriate services to more than 420,000 individuals who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, older Pennsylvanians and individuals with disabilities.

"We are pleased to be selected today for the HealthChoices program," said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President and CEO for Centene. "This tremendous opportunity, along with the Community HealthChoices award in August of this year will allow Centene to make a major investment of more than a thousand local Pennsylvania jobs and deliver innovative programs to work towards improving the lives of the members we will be fortunate to serve."

"The Commonwealth's commitment to moving provider payments away from traditional fee-for-service arrangements to value-based purchasing will have a tremendously positive impact on the health and wellness of Pennsylvanians," said Brent Layton, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer for Centene. "Pennsylvania Health & Wellness is honored to be chosen to be a part of this important transformation while focusing on a community involvement approach."

Keywords for this news article include: Medicaid, Wellness, Health Policy, Community Health, Centene Corporation.

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