Centene still bullish on ACA exchanges despite legal challenges to the law
FierceHealthcare | February 05, 2019
Legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act aren’t deterring Centene from their exchange business, officials said on Tuesday. Centene Corporation’s ACA exchange enrollment grew by 52% to reach 1.5 million members in 2018, the insurer said during its quarterly earnings call, adding approximately 500,000 new enrollees. Following a strong open enrollment for 2019, Centene has reached a national market share of nearly 20% in the ACA exchanges, it said. And a Texas legal ruling from December that determined the law is unconstitutional isn’t holding back growth estimations, Centene CEO Michael Neidorff said on the call—it's “business as usual.” Centene reported about $16.6 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter and a total of about $60.1 billion for all of fiscal year 2018. The quarterly revenue represents a 29% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, and Centene saw 24% growth in revenue year over year. The company also reported a boost from the integration of New York health plan Fidelis and overall membership growth of 1.8 million to 14 million nationwide, an increase of 15% from 2017.