Over the past several years, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of consolidation in the healthcare provider market. Smaller provider groups and physician practices have been increasingly bought up by hospitals, health systems and, recently, by large health insurers like Humana and UnitedHealth.

Payers’ motivations to do so are clear: they believe they can increase their profit margins and reduce waste expenses through vertical integration of the care delivery system. Mid-sized Centene, however, reported that it’s taking a different approach to increase its market share.

Although the company announced earlier this year that it was acquiring Miami-based Community Medical Group, CEO Michael Niedorff told Forbes‘ Bruce Japsen that it will focus more spending on increasing access to Affordable Care Act-compliant individual insurance products and Medicare Advantage plans in markets that are currently underserved by its larger competitors.

This may come as a surprise to industry watchers, who have seen Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, Cigna, Premier and other insurers leave the ACA marketplaces since 2016 — and may signal Centene’s feeling that the Affordable Care Act may not be in as much legislative jeopardy as previously thought.

Get the full story here, from Forbes.