Centene is stepping away from Medicare Advantage in at least six states for 2025, according to the investment bank Stephens and the insurance brokerage Pinnacle Financial Services.
The health insurer will not sell Wellcare Medicare Advantage plans in Alabama, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont next year, but will continue to offer Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, Stephens Managing Director Scott Fidel and colleagues wrote in a research note Monday.
Related: How health insurers have fared so far in 2024
Centene does not have a large presence in those states and counts only about 37,300 Medicare Advantage enrollees between them, or about 3% of its Medicare Advantage membership, according to Stephens.
The health insurance brokerage Pinnacle Financial Services published Centene's notice to third-party marketers on its website. "We want you to know this difficult decision was not made lightly but will enable us to better focus our strategy and resources, so we can continue transforming the health of the communities we serve, one person at a time —for years to come," the memorandum says.
Centene did not respond to several requests for comment. Last month, CEO Sarah London previewed the company's Medicare Advantage shift when she told investor analysts it planned to pull back from a "handful" of markets and geographically align its Medicare offerings with its Medicaid business.
Wellcare Medicare Advantage plans were available in 37 states during open enrollment for the 2024 plan year. Centene reported 1.1 million Medicare Advantage and Medigap members during the second quarter, a 14.3% drop from a year before.
Cost pressures and a looming cut to federal Medicare Advantage rates have led several insurers, including market leader Humana and CVS Health subsidiary Aetna, to announce they would shrink their footprints in 2025.
