Centene wins in appeal of shareholder lawsuit over HealthNet purchase

Dissatisfied shareholders of Centene Corp. cannot sue the health insurer or its directors for allegedly withholding information relevant to the company’s March 2016 acquisition of Health Net for $6 billion, a federal appeals court April 7, Reuters reports. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2020 ruling by a federal judge in St. Louis, who found the shareholders had skipped a step: they hadn’t demanded that Centene sue the alleged wrongdoers itself and hadn’t backed up their claim that such a demand would have been futile.