Health-Care Titan Centene Will Try to Duck Contraceptive Coverage With Pickup Of Church-Linked Provider, Manhattan Pol Warns
Manhattan state Sen. Brad Hoylman has written a letter to state regulators expressing concern that the company purchasing Fidelis Care for $3.75 billion said it will try to continue a policy for at least a year of not providing contraceptive and other family planning service coverage.
St. Louis-based Centene Corp. a publicly traded, for-profit Medicaid managed care provider, announced earlier this month it would be buying Fidelis, a New York health insurance company affiliated with the Catholic Church and a large Obamacare insurer that has 1.6 million customers.
Hoylman in a letter dated Sept. 18 to the state entities that must approve the sale — the departments of financial services and health as well as Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office — said that Centene does not qualify for the same religious exemptions as Fidelis, which because it's affiliated with the Catholic Church in New York was able to outsource the coverage of contraceptives and other family planning services to secular third-party companies. . .