• Current Wellcare President & CEO, Richard Fisher, will join the Operations leadership team under Centene Chief Operating Officer Susan Smith, bringing additional Medicare expertise into Centene's core services operations

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives, today announced two appointments. Michael A. Carson joins Centene as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its Medicare business, Wellcare. Mr. Carson will be responsible for Medicare business performance, strategy and growth and will report to Centene President Ken Fasola. Carson succeeds Richard Fisher, who has been appointed to the Operations leadership team under Centene Chief Operating Officer Susan Smith. Mr. Fisher will have responsibility for key financial and operational processes across Shared Services, as well as lead enterprise development, management and optimization of Centene's key vendor partnerships.

Mr. Carson brings nearly three decades of seasoned leadership, operational and industry expertise in both the payer and provider space with a deep focus on and expertise in serving Medicare and dual-eligible populations. As the CEO of value-based primary and multi-specialty care start-up CareAbout, he led a fully delegated, risk-bearing Medicare and dual-eligible-focused care delivery organization. Mr. Carson also served as the CEO of Bright Health Plan and as the President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He led the formation and rebuilding of Medicare businesses at both Amerigroup and Anthem, as well as served in transformative leadership roles at ConcertoHealth and other Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Mr. Carson started his career in the United States Air Force, where he served for almost a decade before transitioning to corporate roles.

"We are excited for Michael to join the team and look forward to leveraging his extensive knowledge and expertise for the benefit of our Medicare business. He will be a strong addition to the Wellcare team and its efforts to advance the health of the members we serve," said Centene CEO, Sarah M. London. "I am also excited that we will benefit from Rich's deep Medicare expertise as we continue to fortify our core service operations and build a partner ecosystem to best serve our members across our lines of business."

"Centene's longstanding commitment to be the leading provider of member-focused quality care and services is unmatched and I'm excited to support the company's mission to transform the health of the communities it serves," said Carson. "I look forward to helping guide the Medicare business to realize its full potential, driving further innovation and growth as we collaborate with our Medicaid and Marketplace businesses and key provider and member services partners."

Mr. Carson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He serves as Non-Executive Board Chair of HYKE, and as an Advisory Board Member of both Foodsmart and OneHealth.

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, http://investors.centene.com. 

Forward-Looking Statements

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Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date hereof. 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; our ability to manage our information systems effectively; 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; changes in senior management, loss of one or more key personnel or an inability to attract, hire, integrate and retain skilled personnel; 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; changes in provider, state, federal, foreign, and other contracts 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 terms of our contracts and 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, or accretion for acquisitions or dispositions; losses in our investment portfolio; 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 (SEC). 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 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.