Dive Brief:
- Centene, one of the country's largest Medicaid managed care insurers, recorded Q1 profits nearly twice that of 2014. The company credited huge growth in membership for the spike.
- The company's earnings skyrocketed from $33 million in 2014 to $63 million this year. Revenue climbed 48% to over $5.1 billion.
- As of March 31, the company covered 4.4 million lives, up 44% from the same period last year.
Dive Insight:
The feds are set to publish new Medicaid managed care regulations any day now, intended to address access issues like inadequate provider networks and set insurer profit ratios.
"A statement I've been hearing from states is that managed care doesn't necessarily equal service integration," Barbara Coulter Edwards, director of CMS' Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group, told Modern Healthcare.
Despite a forthcoming boost in regulations, however, the Medicaid managed care market is still a bullish one. Enrollment in these plans is expected to rise by 13.5 million people between 2014 and 2016, making up 76% of all enrollees in Medicaid and CHIP, according to Avalere. Currently, 37 states and D.C. contract with private managed-care plans.
"The results for this quarter are wholly consistent with our thesis and back our view that [Centene] should see significantly higher earnings power in the future," wrote Barclays Research analyst Josh Raskin in a research note.