Centene Selected for Statewide Medicaid Contract and Statewide Children's Specialty Program Contract in Oklahoma

Date: 06/08/23

ST. LOUIS, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives, announced today it has been selected by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) for statewide contracts to provide managed care for SoonerSelect and SoonerSelect Children's Specialty Program.

"We are pleased to partner with the state of Oklahoma as it transitions to Medicaid managed care through its SoonerSelect program. In collaboration with our network of providers and local community partners, we look forward to delivering innovative solutions to address social determinants of health, remove barriers to care and deliver better health outcomes for Oklahomans at a lower cost to the state," said Centene's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sarah M. London.

The SoonerSelect program will provide physical and behavioral healthcare, as well as pharmacy benefits, to more than 840,000 Oklahoma Medicaid recipients.

The SoonerSelect Children's Specialty plan provides behavioral health, physical health and pharmacy benefits to Oklahoma's children served by the Department of Human Services, including children in foster care and receiving adoption assistance, as well as those involved in the juvenile justice system. Centene is the nation's leading managed care provider of foster care services and brings unparalleled experience in improving the health outcomes of programs that serve child welfare and foster care populations.

"As a local health plan whose mission is to transform the health of our local communities, one person at a time, we remain focused on partnering with OHCA and building local partnerships with providers and community organizations to meet the unique challenges and healthcare needs facing Oklahomans," said Oklahoma Complete Health's President and CEO, Clayton Franklin.

"Managed Medicaid in Oklahoma will provide more access to innovative therapies and lifesaving care. OU Health serves a significant portion of Oklahoma's patients who will benefit from Managed Medicaid and we are pleased to partner with Oklahoma Complete Health in our shared goal of better outcomes for patients," said President & CEO of OU Health, Richard P. Lofgren, MD, MPH.

The SoonerSelect and SoonerSelect Children's Specialty Program have a one-year contract term with five, one-year renewal options.

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, https://investors.centene.com/.

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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; 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; the risk that the election of new directors, changes in senior management, and any inability to retain key personnel may create uncertainty or negatively impact our ability to execute quickly and effectively; 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; provider, state, federal, foreign contract changes 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 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, and accretion for acquisitions or dispositions; 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. 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 Securities and Exchange Commission (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.