A theory going around is that Centene is being stripped of staff (e.g. outsourcing of marketing, IT; pushing positions to the markets) to be more attractive as a candidate to be sold whole at maximum value to a big acquirer who can get it past the states and DOJ – like a Walgreens, parallel to CVS-Aetna.
Any more acquisitions of or by other health plans likely can't happen due to antitrust and state conflict concerns. It's doubtful that Centene would take on a money-losing MA plan, for instance.
If any of the health plans are low performing (profitable/quality), they are easy to sell off too as Centene has no branding on them. Centene is in other lower-profile health businesses as well. Watch for more parts being stripped off such as the recent sale of Envolve's remote patient monitoring and patient coaching platform to BioTelemetry. Everyone's trying to get INTO RPM since COVID–Centene wants out.
I'm some months out of there, but those of you still there should ask–where is Centene going, reading between management statement lines? If you look at MFN being 75 and in the CEO seat for 25 years, and no clear succession plan nor any indication that he's retiring (sorry, Ken Burdick, whatever you were told...), what is the next chapter?
Ready yourself and your resume, because the year end will not be kind to health plans in general.
Excellent post, @Cvdh+16McEw3o.