ST. LOUIS, May 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) has announced that its wholly owned Florida subsidiary, Sunshine Health, has received Accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its Medicaid and Health Insurance Marketplace Exchange plan, Ambetter from Sunshine Health. NCQA Health Plan Accreditation evaluates how well a health plan manages all parts of its delivery system – physicians, hospitals, other providers and administrative services – in order to continuously improve the quality of care and services provided to its members.

"Earning NCQA Accreditation is an important milestone in Sunshine Health's commitment to quality and performance improvement across services," said Rone Baldwin, Executive Vice President, Markets at Centene.

"Sunshine Health is pleased to be recognized for its commitment to high quality," said Chris Paterson, President and CEO of Sunshine Health. "We remain true to our mission of improving the health of our community, one person at a time."

Sunshine Health is a Medicaid managed care health plan that serves more than 600,000 members. Sunshine Health offers health plan benefits to children and adults who are eligible for Florida Medicaid, those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, and those eligible for Long Term Care as well as Florida's Health Insurance Exchange. Sunshine Health offers a specialty Medicaid health plan for children in Florida's Child Welfare/Foster Care system and two full pay Healthy Kids plans statewide. The network currently includes more than 200 hospitals and 25,000 primary care and specialty physicians.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes clinicians in key clinical areas. NCQA's HEDIS® is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.

About Centene Corporation

Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a diversified, multi-national healthcare enterprise that provides a portfolio of services to government sponsored healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Many receive benefits provided under Medicaid, including the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as Aged, Blind or Disabled (ABD), Foster Care and Long Term Care (LTC), in addition to other state-sponsored programs, Medicare (including the Medicare prescription drug benefit commonly known as "Part D"), as well as programs with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Centene operates local health plans and offers a range of health insurance solutions. It also contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide specialty services including behavioral health management, care management software, correctional healthcare services, dental benefits management, in-home health services, life and health management, managed vision, pharmacy benefits management, specialty pharmacy and telehealth services.

Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the Company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors.

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SOURCE Centene Corporation