Centene received workforce awards and beat out Optum for a behavioral health contract with Idaho in the past month.
Here are seven updates about the payer Becker's has reported since June 22.
- Centene CEO Sarah London told Fortune that leaders are increasingly realizing the importance of developing a strong culture within their organizations.
- Centene was one of 17 payers recognized for their initiatives around disability inclusion and equality for their employees in the 2023 Disability Equality Index, a national benchmarking survey created by Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities.
- Ms. London said she took a heads down approach to the first six to nine months on the job after being appointed to the role in March 2022. Her response to "more" was just to do more and work harder, she said. "It crowded out all the other things in life, including my family," Ms. London said. "And I came into 2023 and I realized that, one, that was not sustainable and two, it didn't actually make me better at what I was doing. Balance actually makes me better."
- Centene was among the 16 insurers named among the nation's top 1,000 employers in 2023 by Newsweek.
- Idaho dropped Optum as the managed care contractor for its behavioral health plan and awarded a four-year, $1.2 billion contract to Centene's Magellan Healthcare subsidiary.
- Longtime Centene executive Brent Layton is joining the board of directors for healthcare startup Homeward.
- Ms. London said behavioral healthcare services are one of the areas where costs are growing the fastest. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Ms. London said the increase in behavioral care costs is partly due to an increase in demand. In contrast, she said emergency room visits among Medicaid enrollees have been on the decline.