If Centene is serious about understanding what is happening within Corporate Ethics & Compliance, then stop looking at individual employees and start looking at the people making the decisions. The problem is much bigger than SIU. It extends across CIU, SIT, COI, InTP, Privacy, Corrections, and other areas that are supposed to protect the company and ensure compliance.
At some point, leadership needs to take a hard look in the mirror. There is a growing perception that advancement, opportunities, protection, and even how employees are treated can depend too heavily on who leadership likes, who they know, who agrees with them, and who does not challenge their decisions. That is not leadership. That is creating an environment where employees learn very quickly that speaking up can have consequences.
And perhaps the biggest problem is that employees are sometimes expected to follow processes that are not clearly documented, have changed repeatedly, are outdated, or in some cases do not exist at all.
Ask for the policy. Ask for the procedure. Ask for the written guideline. Ask for the reference material. The response is often some version of, “We’re working on it.” Well, if you are still working on the policy, then why are you enforcing it as though it already exists? Why are employees being held accountable for standards that have not been clearly communicated? Why are decisions being made based on “how we’ve always done it” when Compliance should be operating from documented, consistent, and defensible standards?
That is not compliance. That is inconsistency disguised as compliance.
Leadership cannot constantly change expectations and then blame employees for failing to meet them.
You cannot move the goalposts and then criticize people for not knowing where the goalposts are. You cannot demand documentation from everyone else while operating without clear documentation yourselves. And you cannot build an effective Compliance organization through fear, favoritism, secrecy, micromanagement, or a culture where challenging leadership is treated as being difficult or disloyal.
The uncomfortable question is this: Who is holding Compliance leadership accountable? If Compliance is supposed to identify risk, investigate misconduct, enforce standards, and protect the organization, then its own leadership should be subject to an equally rigorous level of scrutiny.
Maybe it is time for an independent, top-to-bottom assessment of Corporate Ethics & Compliance.
Not another internal review where the same leadership structure reviews itself. Look at the leadership. Look at hiring and promotion decisions. Look at turnover. Look at why experienced employees have left. Look at how investigations are handled. Look at whether expectations are consistently applied. Look at whether policies actually exist and are current. Look at how employees who raise concerns are treated. Look at whether qualifications, experience, credentials, training, and resources actually match the responsibilities employees are being asked to perform. And most importantly, look at the leadership culture.
Replacing a few employees while leaving the leadership structure, decision-making practices, and underlying culture untouched does not fix the problem. It simply moves the problem around.
Sometimes you don't need another reorganization. You need accountability. You need new leadership. You need policies and procedures that are actually written, current, accessible, and consistently applied. You need qualified people in the right positions with the right experience and tools. And you need leaders who are willing to hear “no,” accept criticism, answer difficult questions, and admit when something is wrong.
Compliance cannot demand from the rest of the company what Compliance leadership is unwilling or unable to demonstrate itself.
If Centene truly wants to rebuild trust, then it needs to start at the top.
Clean house where necessary. Rewrite what is broken. Create what is missing. Remove outdated practices. Establish clear standards. Put qualified people in the right positions. And hold leadership accountable to the same standards imposed on everyone else.
Anything less is just rearranging the furniture while the foundation continues to crack.