Oct 22 (Reuters) - Health insurance company Centene ( CNC )

accused U.S. regulators of unfairly downgrading the star

ratings for its government-funded Medicare plans in a lawsuit on

Tuesday.

The company alleged in its complaint, filed in St. Louis,

Missouri, federal court, that the lower ratings would cause it

to lose customers and up to $73 million in gross revenue, which

could be used to reduce premiums and increase benefits for its

members.

Centene ( CNC ) offers so-called Medicare Advantage plans, which are

funded by the Medicare health insurance program for seniors and

some disabled people but administered by private insurers.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

issues star ratings, from one to five stars, for Medicare

Advantage plans, to help beneficiaries choose their plans. Plans

with higher star ratings may also receive higher payments from

the government if they keep costs below certain targets.

Centene ( CNC ) said in the lawsuit that CMS docked its scores for

the newest star ratings announced this month because of a single

failed attempt to connect to its call center through a

text-to-voice teletypewriter device. Such devices are used by

people who are hard of hearing.

The St. Louis-based company said that, according to notes

kept by the "secret shopper" employed by CMS to test the

service, the call failed because of a software problem on the

caller's end.

As a result, Centene ( CNC ) said, seven of its health plans

received a lower overall star rating, and four received a lower

rating for prescription drug coverage, known as Medicare Part D.

"These are staggering consequences for a single call that

never connected to plaintiffs' call center because the CMS

secret shopper's (teletypewriter) software 'closed

unexpectedly,'" Centene ( CNC ) said.

Centene ( CNC ) is asking the court to order HHS to recalculate its

star rating "immediately" without considering the disputed call.

Despite the rating drop for some plans that Centene ( CNC )

described in its lawsuit, the company said in an Oct. 11

disclosure that it had made "meaningful progress" overall in its

2025 ratings. It said that 46% of its Medicare Advantage members

were enrolled in plans with star ratings of 3.5 star or higher,

up from 23% in the previous year.

Humana and UnitedHealth ( UNH ) filed similar

lawsuits against CMS, challenging ratings downgrades earlier

this month and also alleging that they were unfairly penalized

for call center tests.

The case is Centene Corp ( CNC ) et al v. Becerra, U.S. District

Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, No. 4:24-cv-01415.

For Centene ( CNC ): Catherine Hanaway of Husch Blackwell

For HHS: not available

Read more:

US health agency releases 2025 quality ratings for Medicare

plans

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)