WellCare Health Plans, Inc. is an American health insurance company that provides managed care services primarily through

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and per ...

, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug plans for members across the United States. WellCare began operations in 1985 and has its headquarters in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

. It became a subsidiary of Centene Corporation in January 2020.

History

WellCare began operations in 1985 in Tampa, Florida as a Medicaid provider for the State of Florida. In 1992, Kiran Patel, a cardiologist and entrepreneur, purchased the company. In 2002, Patel sold it to a NY investment group led by

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

and Todd Farha. Also in 2002, Todd Farha joined the company as CEO. In 2004, it became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

. In 2006, WellCare began offering Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug benefits after the signing of the

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health progr ...

in 2003. Also in 2006, WellCare began offering

Medicare Part D Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs. Part D was enacted as part of the Medi ...

plans.

2007 Florida investigations

On October 24, 2007, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant on WellCare's headquarters in Tampa, FL based on a whistleblower complaint that provided evidence of WellCare inflating patients' treatment costs and not returning overpayments to the state. The complaint also named several employees who knew about the activities. In 2011, the SEC filed criminal charges against four WellCare executives. In 2013, the executives, including former CEO Todd Farha, were found guilty of the charges, including healthcare fraud and making false statements to law enforcement. Between 2008 and 2012, the company agreed to pay a total of $217.5 million to settle the claims against them.

2008-2019

In January 2008, Heath Schiesser was promoted to president and CEO, replacing Todd Farha. Schiesser was replaced in December 2009 by Alec Cunningham. In 2012, WellCare expanded its Medicare business through the acquisition of several companies' Medicare businesses, including Arcadian Health Plan in Arizona and Easy Choice Health Plan in California. In November 2013, WellCare appointed Chairman David Gallitano to serve as interim CEO. In 2018, 2019 and 2020 ''Fortune'' magazine named WellCare as one of the World's Most Admired Companies.

Centene acquisition

In January 2020, the company was acquired by Centene Corporation for $17 billion. According to Fierce Healthcare, the merger created one of the largest sponsors of government coverage in the country. Following the merger, WellCare's CFO Andrew Asher became the CFO of Centene and CEO Kenneth Burdick joined the executive team at Centene.

Acquisitions

Since 2012, WellCare has acquired several Medicare & Medicaid supplement providers, including: * November 2012: Easy Choice Health Plan in California * February 2013:

UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world's seventh largest c ...

's Medicaid business in South Carolina * April 2013: Aetna's Medicaid business in Missouri, Missouri Care * January 2014: Windsor Health Group * January 2017: Care1st Health Plan Arizona, a subsidiary of Care1st Health Plan, a

Blue Shield of California Blue Shield of California is a mutual benefit corporation and health plan founded in 1939 by the California Medical Association. It is based in Oakland, California, and serves 4.5 million health plan members and more than 65,000 physicians acr ...

affiliate. *May 2017: Universal American * May 2017: Phoenix Health Plan, formerly a subsidiary of

Abrazo Community Health Network Abrazo Community Health Network (Abrazo Health) is one of the largest health care delivery system in Arizona, United States. Abrazo Community Health Network is located in Phoenix, Arizona and was established in 2003. The Abrazo system comprises ...

, a subsidiary of

Tenet Healthcare Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a for-profit multinational healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Through its brands, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships, including United Surgical Partners International (U ...

* September 2018: Meridian Health Plans, Detroit, Michigan * September 2019:

Aetna Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

's Medicare prescription insurance business, as a condition of

CVS Health CVS Health Corporation (previously CVS Corporation and CVS Caremark Corporation) is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance prov ...

's acquisition of

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wellcare Medicare and Medicaid (United States) Pharmacy benefit management companies based in the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Health care companies based in Florida Companies based in Tampa, Florida American companies established in 1985 Financial services companies established in 1985 Health care companies established in 1985 1985 establishments in Florida 2004 initial public offerings 2020 mergers and acquisitions Health insurance companies of the United States American corporate subsidiaries Centene Corporation