ST. LOUIS, Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today the Centene Institute Youth Impact Award for Vaping Prevention, a curriculum and contest for adolescents ages 14 through 19 to raise awareness about vaping, e-cigarette use and prevention. As part of the challenge, students will learn about the vaping national public health epidemic and be empowered to take action by developing and submitting a 30 to 60-second Public Service Announcement (PSA) video to educate their peers about the dangers of vaping. The contest is accepting submissions from January 19 through April 16, 2021. Winners will be announced in early summer of 2021.

"E-cigarette use has increased dramatically among middle and high school students and is now the most commonly used tobacco product for this age range," said Ken Yamaguchi, M.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer for Centene. "The Youth Impact Award for Vaping Prevention aims to increase awareness and understanding for youth about the many negative effects of vaping and e-cigarette use."

In December 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared youth e-cigarette use a public health epidemic, and reported that e-cigarette use among U.S. middle and high school students increased 900% between 2011 and 2018. In addition, 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration showed that more than 5 million U.S. youth, including over one in four high school students and about one in 10 middle school students, used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, increased awareness is needed for an additional health crisis affecting young adults across the nation.  "The e-cigarette epidemic among youth, occurring concurrently with the COVID-19 pandemic, creates unchartered challenges for our nation's youth," said Mary Mason, M.D., Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer for the Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education. "Protecting youth from nicotine addiction and the lasting dangers resulting from vaping and e-cigarette use is particularly important during these unprecedented times."

Supported by Centene's foundational focus on whole health, the Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education provides health education for youth and young adults, all with the goal of driving early health literacy and preventive care. Additional focus of the Centene Institute is the development and implementation of accessible, interprofessional continuing education as empowering, research-informed educational activities that improve quality of care, performance of the healthcare team and health outcomes.

For more information on the Centene Institute Youth Impact Award for Vaping Prevention, please visit https://www.centeneinstituteaward.com/vapingprevention

About Centene
Centene Corporation, a Fortune 50 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach – with local brands and local teams – to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners.

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://investors.centene.com/. 

Forward-Looking Statements
All statements, other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions (and the negative thereof). Centene (the "Company", "our", or "we") intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include, without limitation, statements about our future operating or financial performance, market opportunity, growth strategy, competition, expected activities in completed and future acquisitions, including statements about the impact of our proposed acquisition of Magellan Health (the "Magellan Health Transaction"), our recently completed acquisition (the "WellCare Acquisition") of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. ("WellCare"), other recent and future acquisitions, investments and the adequacy of our available cash resources.

These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environments, future developments and other factors we believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory, competitive and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions.

All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, variables and events including but not limited to: the risk that regulatory or other approvals required for the Magellan Health Transaction may be delayed or not obtained or are obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated that could require the exertion of management's time and our resources or otherwise have an adverse effect on the Company; the risk that Magellan Health's stockholders do not adopt the definitive merger agreement; the possibility that certain conditions to the consummation of the Magellan Health Transaction will not be satisfied or completed on a timely basis and accordingly the Magellan Health Transaction may not be consummated on a timely basis or at all;  the impact of COVID-19 on global markets, economic conditions, the healthcare industry and our results of operations, which is unknown, and the response by governments and other third parties; uncertainty as to the expected financial performance of the combined company following completion of the Magellan Health Transaction; uncertainty as to our expected financial performance during the period of integration of the WellCare Acquisition; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the Magellan Health Transaction or the WellCare Acquisition will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required, in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for the Magellan Health Transaction; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the completion and/or integration of the Magellan Health Transaction or the integration of the WellCare Acquisition or that the integration of Magellan Health or WellCare will be more difficult or time consuming than expected; the risk that potential litigation in connection with the Magellan Health Transaction may affect the timing or occurrence of the Magellan Health Transaction or result in significant costs of defense, indemnification and liability; a downgrade of the credit rating of our indebtedness, which could give rise to an obligation to redeem existing indebtedness; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the Magellan Health Transaction or the WellCare Acquisition; the possibility that competing offers will be made to acquire Magellan Health; the inability to retain key personnel; disruption from the announcement, pendency and/or completion of the Magellan Health Transaction or the integration of the WellCare Acquisition, including potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships with customers, employees, suppliers or regulators, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that, following the Magellan Health Transaction, the combined company may not be able to effectively manage its expanded operations; our ability to accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses and reserves, including fluctuations in medical utilization rates due to the impact of COVID-19; competition; membership and revenue declines or unexpected trends; changes in healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased healthcare costs; changes in economic, political or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, collectively referred to as the ACA and any regulations enacted thereunder that may result from changing political conditions or judicial actions, including the ultimate outcome in "Texas v. United States of America" regarding the constitutionality of the ACA; rate cuts or other payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; our ability to adequately price products on the Health Insurance Marketplaces and other commercial and Medicare products; tax matters; disasters or major epidemics; the outcome of legal and regulatory proceedings; changes in expected contract start dates; provider, state, federal, foreign and other contract changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments (including but not limited to Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE or other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of pending or future litigation or government investigations; challenges to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from acquired businesses, including businesses we may acquire in the future, will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions; disruption caused by significant completed and pending acquisitions, including, among others, the WellCare Acquisition, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the completion and/or integration of acquisition transactions; changes in expected closing dates, estimated purchase price and accretion for acquisitions; the risk that acquired businesses will not be integrated successfully; restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can impact revenue and future growth; availability of debt and equity financing, on terms that are favorable to us; inflation; foreign currency fluctuations and risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This list of important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may affect our business operations, financial condition and results of operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our future performance, including without limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our future medical and selling, general and administrative costs.

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SOURCE Centene Corporation