Centene Will Group Medicare Offerings Under Wellcare Brand

Wellcare has announced that Centene and Wellcare will consolidate their Medicare offerings under the Wellcare brand name.

This strategy will bring Centene Medicare products like Allwell, Health Net, Fidelis Care, and TexanPlus under the same Wellcare name. Wellcare’s history spans over two decades of offering Medicare products such as Medicare Advantage plans and prescription drug plans. Wellcare is considered a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centene.

The company also revealed the new branding for its Wellcare products. 

“Wellcare unveiled a new circular logo and teal color palette, conveying a more modern, optimistic, consumer-friendly look and feel,” the press release explained. 

“The brand will also take a more straightforward approach in tone and voice to deliver on its brand promise to offer an easy, hassle-free experience so members can focus on staying healthy, not their health insurance.”

Since January 2020, Centene and Wellcare have expanded their reach across 33 states and they serve at least over a million Medicare Advantage members.

The press release indicated that these changes would streamline the member experience as consumers navigated the different plans and benefit offerings.

“As our Medicare footprint continues to grow, our focus was to create one brand to better align with our strategy and goals, help us deliver on our mission, and, most importantly, better serve our 1.1 million Medicare Advantage members across the country,” Rich Fisher, senior vice president, and chief executive officer of Medicare for Centene, explained in the announcement.

Centene announced its plans acquire Wellcare in March 2019. At the time, Centene executives shared that the companies seemed like a natural pairing due to their heavy involvement in government-sponsored health plans.

The deal received a massive show of stakeholder approval later in 2019, with approximately 99 percent of the voting stakeholders affirming the acquisition.

The payers finalized the acquisition deal in January 2020 for $17.3 billion, creating a company that covers a total of more than 24 million members. 

At the time, the payers reported that approximately 14 percent of the combined company’s portfolio would consist of Medicare and Medicare prescription drug plans. Another 66 percent of the new portfolio would be dedicated to Medicaid contracts.

Apart from bolstering its Medicare products, Centene has taken steps to improve its behavioral healthcare capabilities as well. 

In January 2021, the payer revealed its plans to acquire Magellan Health for approximately $2.2 billion in an effort to integrate physical and behavioral health care offerings. The behavioral healthcare platform that Magellan Health can offer Centene would reach 41 million members.

While this acquisition centers on behavioral healthcare products, it would deliver a boost to Centene’s Medicare and Medicaid offerings as well. The payer would gain 5.5 million new members in the public payer health plans. 

Additionally, it would add 2 million members to Centene’s pharmacy benefit manager and 16 million members to its medical pharmacy membership.

Other major payers are likewise using acquisitions and mergers to advance their goals as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and its long-term implications for healthcare delivery.

Humana initiated an acquisition of a home healthcare company in which the major payer had taken a minority stake for around three years. 

Kindred at Home is a home healthcare company with 43,000 caregivers and over half a million patients in 40 states. More than two-thirds of Humana Medicare Advantage members have access to Kindred at Home services.

Humana executives aim to close the deal in the third quarter of 2021 and anticipate seeing an impact on 2022 financial earnings.

UnitedHealth Group declared intentions to acquire Change Healthcare in early 2021. But these plans have been delayed. The partners agreed to alter the timeline for finalizing the deal due to antitrust concerns.