Molina Agrees to Acquire ConnectiCare; Centene Reveals Medicaid Struggles

Molina Healthcare, Inc. has agreed to pay $350 million to acquire ConnectiCare, a subsidiary of EmblemHealth that covers about 140,000 medical livesa in Connecticut. The July 23 announcement occurred one day before Molina reported second-quarter earnings results that beat Wall Street analysts’ projections. The ConnectiCare deal is expected to close in the first half of next year and is subject to regulatory approvals. 

Fellow insurer Centene Corp., meanwhile, reported second-quarter financial results on July 26 that underscored the elevated cost trends it’s seeing in its dominant Medicaid segment. Like other insurers, Centene is feeling the effects of a higher-acuity risk pool created by the exodus of millions of people from the Medicaid rolls since states restarted routine eligibility checks last spring. Still, other positive developments for Centene led one Wall Street analyst to declare its quarterly performance “mixed.”