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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.

CNC

Centene

Medicaid, Medicare, and Health Insurance Marketplace products

Plans tracked

Provider records

Rate observations

MRF publication cadence

Monthly

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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 Are

Centene 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 TypeNational 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 SourceMachine Readable Files (TiC Rule)
Data FreshnessUpdated 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.

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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.

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CPTDescriptionCategoryCentene National Avg.Medicare Benchmark
99214Office Visit, Established (Moderate)

E&M

View rates
99213Office Visit, Established (Low)

E&M

View rates
99215Office Visit, Established (High)

E&M

View rates
90837Psychotherapy, 60 min

Psychiatry

View rates
90834Psychotherapy, 45 min

Psychiatry

View rates
90791Psychiatric Diagnostic Evaluation

Psychiatry

View rates
70450CT Head/Brain without Contrast

Radiology

View rates
73721MRI Lower Extremity Joint

Radiology

View rates
45378Diagnostic 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 files
centene_in-network-rates_example.jsonILLUSTRATIVE
1{
2 "reporting_entity_name": "Centene",
3 "plan_name": "Centene PPO",
4 "version": "1.3.0",
5 "in_network": [
6 { "billing_code": "99214",
7 "negotiated_rates": [
8 { "npi": 1538156793,
9 "negotiated_price": 162.84, "service_code": "11"
10 "billing_class": "professional" },
11 { "npi": 1972658421,
12 "negotiated_price": 148.20, "service_code": "11" },
13 // additional negotiated-rate rows
14 ]
15 },
16 // additional billing codes
17 ]
18}

rate 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