How Centene's Fidelis Care responded to the Buffalo shooting

When a gunman opened fire in a Buffalo grocery story earlier this year, the team at Centene's Fidelis Care jumped into action.

The May 14 shooting claimed the lives of 10 people and injured three more. Centene CEO Sarah London said on the company's earnings call that within 72 hours of the shooting, a Fidelis employee had reached out to all 373 of its members who filled a prescription at the store's pharmacy.

"No one from headquarters had to call them and tell them what to do," London said.

The Tops Friendly Markets store where the shooting occurred was the only grocery store accessible for many of those members, London said, and within 24 hours the Fidelis team had mobilized to distribute food to people in need.

The grocery store also was the main pharmacy for many people, and during the check-in calls, the Fidelis team identified their medication needs, ensuring they could access those drugs and find pharmacy resources elsewhere, London said.

"Neighbors engaging in simple but profound acts of human caring," London said. "That's the power of local."

In terms of Centene's latest earnings results, the company posted a $172 million loss in the second quarter, still beating the Street and slimming its losses compared to the prior year's quarter. In the second quarter of 2021, Centene reported a $535 million loss, according to its earnings report released Tuesday morning.

Despite the loss, Centene surpassed Wall Street's expectations on both earnings and revenue, according to Zacks Investment Research.

And even with a second-quarter loss on the books, Centene is boosting its guidance for the year and now expects between $5.60 and $5.75 in earnings per share. The company projects revenues between $141.6 billion and $143.6 billion.

The company brought in $35.9 billion in revenue for the quarter, up from $31 billion in the second quarter of 2021. In the first half of this year, revenues were $73.1 billion, according to the report, compared to $61 billion in the first half of 2021.

As for profits through the first six months of this year, the government insurance giant made $677 million, compared to $164 million through the first half of 2021.

The company added about 200,000 members in the second quarter, reaching 26.4 million in total membership. That's up by more than one million from the second quarter of 2021, when the insurer reported 24.7 million members.

"Our strong second quarter results reflect the consistency of Centene's product performance," Centene CEO Sarah London said in a statement. "The second quarter reflects continued execution on our Value Creation Plan with tangible actions and results, providing an excellent foundation from which we will continue to build over the next couple of years."

In the report, the company recaps a slew of actions it's taken over the past quarter, including a deal announced Monday to sell off its businesses in Spain and central Europe. Centene also completed the sale of its PANTHERx specialty pharmacy subsidiary and landed a Medicaid contract in Delaware.

In addition, Centene kicked off plans to slim down its real estate footprint and sell off Magellan Rx in the second quarter.