Insurers Humana, Centene and Elevance Health were selected as the three statewide Medicaid contract awardees in Florida on April 12.
The winners, which include local plans Florida Community Care and Community Care Plan for partial coverage of the state, will have access to a large share of the Florida Medicaid population, representing around 4.8 million people, according to Health News Florida.
Absent from the contract award winners are UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Molina Healthcare and AmeriHealth Caritas Florida, reported Florida Politics. They previously held contracts in a combination of the state's regions but were not selected going forward. The health plans could choose to protest the decision.
A sigh of relief is likely to have come from Centene HQ. Last month, Centene declared it would be filing a protest with Texas over the state's scoring of its Medicaid proposal. Winning a statewide contract with Florida helps dispel concerns over the health plan's ability to win key Medicaid agreements. Following the news, Wells Fargo increased its price target outlook from $89 to $93, according to Investing.com.
Centene won a statewide contract in Florida under Sunshine State Health Plan while Simply Healthcare Plans is a subsidiary of Elevance Health. The Centene plan was also given a specialty child welfare award. Florida's Medicaid contracts total six years, starting in October.
The trio's stocks were up at the time of publication Monday, particularly shares in Centene, which increased by 3.5%.
In Michigan, nine plans were given five-year contracts, including UnitedHealthcare, Molina Healthcare, Aetna Better Health, Centene and Blue Cross Complete of Michigan.