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Centene said Monday it has offered buyouts to some employees as the health insurer grapples with higher medical costs, funding reductions and membership declines.
“Centene is positioning the company to lead the future of healthcare by working to deliver a simpler, better experience for our members and partners while meeting the realities of today’s healthcare environment,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Today we announced a voluntary separation program to support employees who are considering a transition.”
The company did not say how many employees had been offered a buyout or to what extent it planned to reduce its workforce. Shares initially fell 4% after Bloomberg first reported the news on Monday.
Layoffs could follow if the company fails to meet the target for voluntary departures, Bloomberg reported.
Centene is the largest provider of Medicaid and focuses on other federal health plans through Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. The buyouts come after the company reported a decline in its membership in the first quarter, down 6% year over year to 26.3 million, according to a filing.
Centene’s ACA business lost about 2 million members in the first quarter compared to the end of 2025, primarily because Congress let the program’s enhanced federal subsidies expire earlier this year. The company also said in March that it expects ACA membership to decline by nearly 40% by the end of 2026, executives said in March at a Barclays conference.
Centene is bracing for the impact of more than $900 billion in Medicaid cuts over a decade, and the insurance industry as a whole continues to deal with higher-than-expected medical costs in private Medicare plans.