Centene CEO Michael Neidorff defended COVID-19 vaccine mandates during the company's earnings call on Tuesday morning.
Neidorff said that the insurer was early to roll out such a mandate for its own workers, and Centene employees are required to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as a condition of employment. He said these mandates are critical tools to protecting vulnerable people who can not access the vaccine, such as young children.
"Centene has been a leader on this critical issue," Neidorff said.
Many healthcare organizations, payers and providers alike were rolling out such requirements, but the mandates picked up in earnest when the Biden administration said workforce vaccination would be a condition of Medicare and Medicaid participation.
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Healthcare organizations in states like Texas have run into the significant challenge of balancing the federal requirements with state policies that prevent them from mandating vaccinations.
Neidorff noted that the science behind mRNA vaccines like those for COVID-19 has been in the works for 25 years, and scientists argue that these vaccines are some of the safest ever made available at launch.
Nearly 57% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 8.9% more have recieved at least one dose, according to data from Our World in Data.
Centene Corporation released its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, where it posted $584 million in profit.
The results fell short of Wall Street analysts' expectations, according to Zacks Investment Research. Centene did beat the Street on revenues for the quarter, where it posted $32.4 billion.
Q3 2021 profit was up slightly from the prior-year quarter, where Centene earned $564 million. However, the company's profitability through three quarters is significantly below 2020 figures. Through the first nine months of this year, Centene has raked in $748 million in profit, compared to $1.8 billion through the first three quarters of 2020.
"We are pleased with our third-quarter results, demonstrating the strength of our underlying businesses as we delivered strong membership growth and HBR was in line with our expectations. Our performance provides a strong foundation for our value creation plan, which we have initiated to fully leverage our size and scale going forward," Neidorff said in a statement.
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Highlights from the quarter include membership growth of 5% year over year, with an additional 1.4 million lives bringing Centene's total to 26.5 million members.
Centene also announced plans to significantly expand its reach in Medicare Advantage, thanks to its acquisition of government insurance rival Wellcare, which closed in early 2020. The company also consolidated a number of disparate MA brands under the Wellcare name.
The insurer is increasing its revenue guidance for the year to reflect its acquisition of Circle Health, and now expects between $125.2 billion and $126.4 billion in revenues. The still-pending Magellan acquisition is not considered in these calculations, Centene said.
Centene expects earnings per share of between $5.05 and $5.15 for the year.