1. Centene completed its $2.2 billion purchase of Phoenix-based behavioral health provider Magellan Health on Jan. 4, making it one of the country’s largest behavioral health providers.
2. Vice chair Sarah London was appointed Centene’s CEO on March 22. She had been assisting with the day-to-day management of the company since February, when then-CEO Michael Neidorff took a leave of absence.
3. Michael Neidorff, the longtime CEO of Centene, died at the age of 79 on April 7 following a lengthy illness. He became the president and CEO of Centene in 1996.
4. CEO Sarah London announced on the company’s April 26 earnings call that the company was updating its office of the CEO to assist her in setting policy and driving Cenete’s enterprise agenda. The office included Ms. London, President and COO Brent Layton, CFO Drew Asher, Chief Transformation Officer Jim Murray and Magellan Health CEO Ken Fasola.
5. Centene signed definitive agreements May 5 to sell its Magellan Rx and Pantherx Rare pharmacy businesses in two separate deals worth $2.8 billion.
6. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported June 10 that Centene quietly bought the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton hotel for $98 million in 2018. A Centene spokesperson told the Post-Dispatch the acquisition “met an immediate need” for hotel accommodation and bought the hotel instead of building one.
7. Centene canceled a plan Aug. 18 to build a 2.4 million-square-foot East Coast campus in Charlotte, N.C., because of the shift to hybrid and remote work. The six planned buildings — first announced in 2020 — would have been centered around IT.
8. Centene on Dec. 14 promoted Ken Fasola to president and Jim Murray to COO as current president and COO Brent Layton plans to retire.
9. Centene announced Nov. 17 it is selling specialty benefit management company Magellan Specialty Health to Evolent Health in a deal worth up to $750 million.
10. Centene spent $307.5 million in 2022 to settle allegations it overbilled seven state Medicaid programs for pharmacy services. Nearly 54 percent of that total comes from a $165.6 million settlement with Texas.
