Michael F. Neidorff, who built the Centene Corporation from a small Milwaukee health plan into the nation's largest insurer for the government, died on April 7 in St. Louis. He died at the age of 78.
His family said he was sick.
Mr. Neidorff took a medical leave of absence in February after he indicated in December that he would retire as chief executive in 2022. Sarah London was appointed as the chief executive of Centene in March.
In 1996, when Mr. Neidorff joined Centene, the insurer offered a single health plan with 40 million sales. He turned it into a corporation that provided health insurance under government programs. Centene had $126 billion in revenues last year.
Ms. London said that the company he built provides health care for nearly one in 15 vulnerable Americans.
Centene chose to focus on government-sponsored insurance for low-income individuals and older people under Mr. Neidorff's leadership.
The former chief executive of Centene's main rivals said that Michael was very clever from a strategic standpoint. He said that Mr. Neidorff was aware that fewer people were likely to be insured through their employer.
Mr. Neidorff positioned Cent when the new market for insurance was created under theAffordable Care Act. He persevered even after large insurers stopped offering coverage.
When many of the other companies withdrew from the exchanges, he stayed with it, according to Ana Gupte, a former Wall Street analyst who now runs her own advisory company.
They took advantage of the fact that other companies were risk averse and exited.
Jesse Hunter, a former chief strategy officer for Centene, said that Mr. Neidorff agreed to provide coverage in some of the markets that state officials and regulators were concerned about.
Mr. Neidorff told The New York Times in 2017: "We want to help out where we are able to."
He was born in 1942 to A. Harvey Neidorff, a physician, and a nurse. He decided to major in political science at Trinity University, instead of going into medicine. He received a master's degree from St. Francis College.
He is survived by his family, including his wife, Nomi; his brother, Robert; his sister, Susan; and his son, Peter. Monica died in 2021.
It was obvious that they needed a complete change when Mr. Neidorff was hired to be the chief executive of Coordinated Care.
Mr. Ditmore had questions about Medicaid, but Mr. Neidorff expanded aggressively into the market. He said that Mr. Neidorff persuaded him to go for it.
The company was taken public in 2001. He acquired a California insurer, Health Net, which offered private plans for Medicare.
Mr. Ditmore said that Mr. Neidorff was eager to become a major player despite the uncertainty about how insurers should price their policies in the new market.
Mr. Neidorff made several key acquisitions. He bought a Florida Medicare Advantage insurer in 2020. The company completed the purchase of a company that provided mental health benefits.
Politan Capital Management, an activist investor, put pressure on Centene because of the company's stock price performance. In December, the company agreed to change the composition of its board, and Mr. Neidorff announced that he would retire as chief executive in 2022.
He was involved in philanthropy. He was a board member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Theater of Saint Louis and the Manhattan School of Music. He donated $25 million to Trinity last September.
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