Here are five recent updates on one of the country's largest insurers:
1. Centene is the third largest insurer by revenue with $126 billion, according to a June 2022 Value Penguin report. The U.S. has more than 900 health insurance companies that provide medical coverage, but the industry is dominated by five companies that own 44 percent of the market.
2. Centene ranked 26th on this year's Fortune 500 list, released May 23.
3. Centene's Sarah London, 41, is the fifth-youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
4. Citing a plan to adopt a more "modern, flexible work environment," Centene said June 17 it is planning to reduce its real estate footprint by 65 percent. The St. Louis-based payer said during its first quarter earnings call in April that it would be reducing its real estate footprint by more than half and more details regarding that plan would come during its June 17 investor day.
5. Centene quietly bought the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel for $98 million in 2018. The purchase was part of a larger, previously planned $770 million Centene campus that would help accommodate new employees for training. The payer is now reevaluating the purchase and other "non-core assets."
6. Centene has agreed to pay $13.7 million to settle an investigation into its subsidiaries' pricing and reporting of pharmacy benefits and services to New Mexico's Medicaid program. The payer's wholly owned subsidiaries were being investigated over concerns they were layering fees and not passing retail discounts on to the state's Medicaid program. Centene has agreed to provide complete pricing transparency on all pharmaceutical benefits and services provided to the Medicaid program.
7. Centene Medicaid subsidiary Home State Health has named Jeff Johnston plan president and CEO, effective May 31. Mr. Johnston will oversee the company's Medicaid, Medicare and health insurance marketplace plans. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of community operations at Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy Health.
8. Centene is terminating its leases for nearly 200,000 square feet of office space in St. Louis or surrounding suburbs.