Centene Boosts Behavioral Health Platform With Magellan Acquisition
St. Louis-based managed care company Centene continued its acquisition spree in the new year with the purchase of Magellan Health Inc., a for-profit managed care company focused on special populations and pharmacy benefits, for approximately $2.2. billion.
In November, Centene (NYSE: CNC) announced the acquisition of Apixio, a company that provides a technology suite that mines, compiles and analyzes large volumes of disparate, unstructured patient data (such as physician notes and medical charts), and creates and refines algorithms to extract insights to support payers' and providers' administrative activities. In December Centene announced it would acquire PANTHERx, one of the largest specialty pharmacies in the United States specializing in orphan drugs and rare diseases.
Centene is the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the country, serve nearly 1 in 15 individuals in the nation. The company said the purchase of Phoenix-based Magellan Health Inc. (NASDAQ: MGLN), would broaden and deepen Centene's whole health capabilities and establish a leading behavioral health platform. The company said the combined platform lays the foundation by which the company will continue to invest and innovate for its members, enabling improved health outcomes and faster, diversified growth.
The combination brings together the companies' complementary capabilities in behavioral health, specialty healthcare and pharmacy management. As a result of the transaction, Centene will establish one of the nation's largest behavioral health platforms across 41 million unique members with capabilities to deliver better health outcomes for complex, high-cost populations. Magellan Health will also bolster Centene's position in government-sponsored healthcare, bringing 5.5 million new members on government-sponsored plans. Magellan Health also provides specialty health services for 18 million third-party customer members in addition to Centene's own members.
The deal also adds 2 million pharmacy benefit management (PBM) members and 16 million medical pharmacy members, enhancing the scale of Centene's pharmacy platform with capabilities in specialty drug management. As part of Centene's Health Care Enterprises, Magellan Health will continue to independently support its existing customers and pursue growth opportunities.
Ken Fasola, CEO of Magellan Health, and other members of Magellan Health's leadership team have agreed to join Centene, the company said in a press release.
