The St. Louis-based insurer is adding onto a growing pile of lawsuits from insurers trying to get their quality scores recalculated.

It’s at least the third lawsuit against the CMS from an insurer upset about their 2027 star ratings, which run from 1 to 5 stars and are tied to a bevy of competitive advantages in the privatized Medicare program.

The lawsuits all take issue with the measures that the CMS factored into the scores. A court ruled that 20 measures were illegal this spring, but the CMS still used some in calculating 2027 scores for all insurers except Clover Health, the plaintiff in that case.

That’s unfair, according to the suits, which reiterate the legal arguments that were successful in the Clover litigation: The CMS doesn’t have statutory authority to consider certain measures, and started using others without a proper notice-and-comment period. However, the insurers are targeting a grab bag of different measures depending on what factors depressed their particular scores.

Alignment Healthcare — the first insurer to sue, after seeing a disastrous drop in its star ratings — is suing to overturn 10 measures. Healthfirst, which filed its complaint a week ago, is seeking to overturn five measures.

Now Centene is taking issue with 17 measures, after the percentage of members in plans rated 4 stars or above slipped from 16% in 2026 to 12% in 2027.

Centene said that dozens of its contracts received lower stars because regulators used the disputed measures. The St. Louis-based insurer estimates it’ll lose out on $448 million in quality bonus payments and rebates in 2028, the year in which payments are adjusted based on 2027 scores, as a result.

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