Centene Corp. Chooses Ferguson as Location for New Claims Facility

Summary: Ferguson has been chosen as the location for a new claims facility for the Centene Corp., which is headquartered in Clayton. 

Ferguson has been chosen by Centene Corp. as the location for a new claims processing facility for the company, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The new location will bring up to 200 new jobs to the city. The company said that the unrest in the city following Michael Brown’s death helped it make the decision easier.

“Centene views this as a way to help the community and we have the confidence in the residents of Ferguson,” Centene’s chairman and chief executive Michael Neidorff said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do for the community, state and our shareholders. It is time for action, not talk.”

Centene Corporation is a managed care company that is headquartered in Clayton and is a Fortune 500 company. It has more than $10.5 billion in annual revenue. The new location will process claims from the Missouri-based Home State Health.

Centene wants to open the new center by 2015.

“While a normal project of this scope generally takes up to 18 months, Centene has authorized an expedited timeline,” the company said in the statement.

New employees will be trained and developed at a temporary site prior to the new location opening in 2015. The new jobs will have dental and vision, health care, on-site day care, an auditorium for educational advancement and a cafeteria.

The unemployment rate in Ferguson jumped to more than 13 percent between 2010 and 2012 after sitting at five percent in 2000. The population of the city is roughly 21,000.

Governor Jay Nixon said the following in a statement: “This investment is an important step forward for Ferguson and the entire region. Attracting new jobs and investments is vital to creating greater economic opportunities for all Missourians in this region.”

William Scheffel, the chief financial officer for Centene, said that the company worked hand-in-hand with Governor Nixon to choose Ferguson as the new location. An unknown amount of incentives were offered to the company by the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The company was founded in 1984.

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