Payer contract guide
Official sources linked below
Negotiating with Centene: Fee Schedule and Reimbursement Rate Benchmarks for 2026
Centene offers Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug plans, and Health Insurance Marketplace coverage through state plans and several operating brands. PayerPrice structures the published Centene rate records it tracks so contract teams can compare the same plan, market, and provider type.
Centene
Medicaid, Medicare, and Health Insurance Marketplace products
Plans tracked
Provider records
Rate observations
MRF publication cadence
Monthly
Oldest included refresh
On this page
Centene Overview
Centene, at a glance
Centene offers Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug plans, and Health Insurance Marketplace coverage through state plans and several operating brands.
Treat each state plan and line of business separately. Blending Medicaid, Marketplace, and Medicare records would produce a Centene benchmark that fits none of those contracts.
Payer sources
Centene: Who We AreCentene reimbursement can vary by product, network, provider contract, service details, and geographic location. Match those attributes before relying on a parent-brand benchmark.
Quick Facts
OFFICIAL PAYER + PAYERPRICE DATA
| Payer Type | National healthcare enterprise focused on government-sponsored coverage |
| Total Membership | |
| Market Share | |
| Plan Types | Medicaid Health Insurance Marketplace Medicare Medicare Prescription Drug |
| Plans Tracked in PayerPrice | |
| Data Source | Machine Readable Files (TiC Rule) |
| Data Freshness | Updated monthly |
Negotiation Playbook
How to negotiate better Centene reimbursement rates
Use these four steps to check the current contract, choose comparable rates, and prepare a specific proposal for Centene.
Step 1
Benchmark your current rates
Start with the executed contract and recent remittances. Confirm which rates are in use before comparing them with published data.
Step 2
Prioritize material services
Use paid claims to find the services that matter most financially. The priority list should reflect your practice, not an arbitrary number of codes.
Step 3
Build a comparable peer set
Compare published rates from the same plan and market for similar providers. Use them as context; they do not prove what another provider was paid on a specific claim.
Step 4
Build the negotiation case
Show the current terms, matched benchmarks, expected financial effect, and proposed rates. Spell out any assumptions.
Build a proposal the payer can evaluate.
Match published rates to the contract's network and market, then apply your own service mix to estimate the financial effect.
See our full payer contract negotiations guide for the deep dive.
Centene Network Directory
Centene plans and entities in PayerPrice
The index keeps each Centene subsidiary plan separate. Open a payer page to review the plan and rate data available for that entity.
Plan / Affiliate | State(s) | Plans Tracked | Providers (NPI) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Reimbursement Rates · National Avg.
Centene rates for commonly billed CPT codes
These national-average in-network rates come from the latest available PayerPrice dataset. The table also shows the Medicare allowed amount for each selected CPT code. The provider contract and claim details determine the actual reimbursement.
| CPT | Description | Category | Centene National Avg. | Medicare Benchmark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99214 | Office Visit, Established (Moderate) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 99213 | Office Visit, Established (Low) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 99215 | Office Visit, Established (High) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 90837 | Psychotherapy, 60 min | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 90834 | Psychotherapy, 45 min | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 90791 | Psychiatric Diagnostic Evaluation | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 70450 | CT Head/Brain without Contrast | Radiology | View rates | ||
| 73721 | MRI Lower Extremity Joint | Radiology | View rates | ||
| 45378 | Diagnostic Colonoscopy | Surgery | View rates |
Rates shown are national averages. Actual Centene reimbursement varies by subsidiary plan, plan, geographic location, and provider contract. For provider-level detail by NPI or Tax ID, run a free sample report.
Centene Machine Readable Files
How to read Centene machine-readable files
Under the Transparency in Coverage requirements, most non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers offering non-grandfathered group or individual coverage must publish machine-readable files with in-network negotiated rates and out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges. See the CMS guidance for plans and issuers. CMS's technical clarification states that the files are updated monthly.
For Centene, this gets complicated fast. The Centene grouping in PayerPrice includes the subsidiary payer sources represented in its dataset. Use the entity named in the provider agreement when selecting records.
PayerPrice makes the Centene records it tracks searchable by billing code, provider, plan, and market.
Search Centene rates without opening raw filesrate observations in latest dataset
Frequently asked
Common questions about Centene fee schedules
A Centene fee schedule sets reimbursement terms for covered services in a provider agreement. The contract may use code-based prices or another payment method. Because Centene contracts through multiple entities, rates can vary by subsidiary plan, product, network, and provider contract. PayerPrice organizes the published Centene rate records it tracks for comparison.
For Centene contract leads
Compare published Centene rates for similar providers.
Start with a sample of published Centene rate data, then narrow the comparison by plan, market, billing code, and provider attributes.
Your sample includes
Published rate records from Centene
CPT and Medicare comparisons, where available
Filters for plan, market, and provider
Guidance for reading machine-readable files