Centene is laying off about 2,000 employees starting Oct. 2, or about 3 percent of its workforce, as the company faces financial difficulties over Medicaid redeterminations and Medicare Advantage star ratings, the St. Louis Business Journal reported Sept. 26.
According to the report, employees' last day will be Dec. 8, and healthcare and other benefits will be available through the end of the year.
"We routinely assess our workforce to ensure we have the talent and expertise necessary to support our members and the evolving needs of our business. Our decision was not made lightly and impacts approximately 2,000 employees, just over 3% of our workforce," a Centene spokesperson told the SLBJ.
Centene CEO Sarah London said in September that the company has lost about 900,000 Medicaid members since redeterminations began, or about 40 percent of the total losses expected. Centene's total Medicaid membership is 16 million, according to its second quarter earnings report.
Ms. London told investors on a second quarter earnings call that the payer could end 2023 with no four-star rated Medicare Advantage contracts. The percentage of Centene members with four-star or higher plans dropped from 48 percent to 3 percent in 2022. As of June 30, the company has 1.3 million MA members.
"While this is disappointing, we do expect to see meaningful movement in our three- and 3.5-star bands in October, and roughly two-thirds of our members are in plans showing year-over-year improvement," Ms. London said previously.
Centene recorded $1.06 billion in net income in the second quarter of 2023 after recording a $172 million loss during the same period last year. Total revenues for the quarter ended June 30 were $37.6 billion, up from $35.9 billion during the same period last year.