National for-profit Medicaid provider’s difficulties may impact Linn County

It's a long way from Missouri to Oregon. But some bad news Centene Corp., a publicly traded Medicaid and Medicare health insurance provider headquartered in St. Louis, released earlier this month could have ripple effects for Trillium Community Health Plan.

That's because Centene owns Trillium, having acquired in 2015 the operation that started as the Lane Individual Physicians Association.

Trillium, which serves parts of six counties (Clackamas, Douglas, Lane, Linn, Multnomah and Washington), is one of the 16 coordinated care organizations that provide Oregon Health Plan benefits to 1.4 million Oregonians, including 57% of the state's children.

On July 1, Centene issued a statement saying it was withdrawing the previous guidance it had provided to Wall Street analysts about its 2025 financial results after reviewing data from the first half of the year. In effect, the company said, conditions — particularly in its Medicaid businesses — were deteriorating and its results would be worse than previously expected.

The company's stock plummeted the next day, falling from $56.65 to $33.78 — a 40% drop. On July 7, Bloomberg reported that Standard & Poor's Global, a bond ratings agency, was considering lowering its rating on Centene to junk status, which would significantly increase Centene's borrowing costs.

It is unclear what impact Centene's issues might have in Oregon, but the public indications (the stock price dropping and the possible ratings downgrade) are indications of great uncertainty in the Medicaid area.

A Trillium spokesperson declined to comment on what the challenges Centene faces could mean to Trillium's operations.

The larger context, of course, is President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill" and its impact on the Oregon Health Plan. Nationally, cuts to Medicaid over the next decade are forecast to total more than $1 trillion and cost 10.8 million people their health insurance.

Those numbers, developed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, are hard to digest. But few states have been more aggressive than Oregon at seeking creative and expansive ways to use federal Medicaid dollars, which typically make up about of 71% of the dollars spent on children and 58% of dollars spent on others.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the Oregon Health Plan, did not respond to a request for comment.

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