Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Earnings Per Share (Details)

v3.5.0.2
Earnings Per Share (Details) - USD ($)
$ / shares in Units, $ in Millions
3 Months Ended 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Jun. 30, 2015
Jun. 30, 2016
Jun. 30, 2015
Earnings attributable to Centene Corporation:        
Earnings from continuing operations, net of tax $ 170 $ 88 $ 154 $ 152
Discontinued operations, net of tax (1) 0 (2) (1)
Net earnings $ 169 $ 88 $ 152 $ 151
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding (in shares) 170,558,778 119,003,569 148,050,927 118,894,269
Common stock equivalents (as determined by applying the treasury stock method) (in shares) 3,219,759 3,961,442 3,096,713 3,891,190
Weighted average number of common shares and potential dilutive common shares outstanding (in shares) 173,778,537 122,965,011 151,147,640 122,785,459
Basic:        
Continuing operations (in dollars per share) $ 1.00 $ 0.74 $ 1.04 $ 1.28
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share) (0.01) 0.00 (0.01) (0.01)
Basic earnings per common share (in dollars per share) 0.99 0.74 1.03 1.27
Diluted:        
Continuing operations (in dollars per share) 0.98 0.72 1.02 1.24
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share) (0.01) 0.00 (0.01) (0.01)
Diluted earnings per common share (in dollars per share) $ 0.97 $ 0.72 $ 1.01 $ 1.23
Anti-dilutive restricted stock and restricted stock units excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per common share (in shares) 47,886 49,754 51,175 59,828