Sarah M. London
Vice Chairman at Centene
Great. Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. As Michael noted, we delivered a strong fourth quarter performance creating positive momentum as we start the new year and successfully executed on key operational objectives, including the introduction of new marketplace products for the 2022 open enrollment period repositioning that business for success in a constantly evolving landscape, the delivery of another strong annual enrollment period in Medicare Advantage as the value we provide for beneficiaries continues to resonate in the market, and continued progress on our value creation plan including refining margin expansion opportunities and advancing the execution of our highest-priority initiatives.
On today's call, Brent will comment on our core businesses, including how we are carrying our Q4 momentum forward into 2022, then Drew will provide details on our fourth quarter performance and financial outlook. Before I turn it over to them, let me provide a brief update on the value-creation progress. From a structural perspective, we have added important talent and leadership to our Value Creation Office. As we announced in early January, Jim Murray, who served as Magellan's President and COO, has transitioned to take on the new role of Chief Transformation Officer, leading the day-to-day management of the VCO. Jim brings experience and operating discipline and a track record for successful execution, adding another important layer of accountability to our value creation program. We are thrilled to have him on board.
Now to the details. As we mentioned at our December Investor Day, 2022 is largely a year of foundational execution, and we plan to provide guideposts on our operational progress, incremental though some may seem, as a way of bringing you on the journey with us and offering a view into the work underway. And while we are only one month into Q1, we have already made progress on some of those key guideposts. First, our pharmacy platform consolidation project. As a reminder, the strategy here is to outsource administrative PBM functions to an external partner, thereby allowing us to reduce our three PBM platform down to one and to focus that technology on the clinical member and provider engagement capabilities that are most important to differentiating the overall member experience. This will drive SG&A savings across the technology footprint and allow for more efficient investment in process automation.
Coming into 2022, we had eight remaining state-specific programs that had not yet been consolidated on our external PBM platform. We successfully migrated three of these on January 1 and another on February 1 as planned. We are targeting the fourth migration for March 1 and the remaining three are scheduled for later in Q2. Overall, we are on track to be fully consolidated in time to issue our planned PBM RFP against our full $38 billion of pharmacy spend. I am pleased to say that work is well underway to prepare for the RFP release this summer, and we look forward to maximizing value for the enterprise through that process.
Since December, we have also made good progress on the efforts we outlined around standardizing and rationalizing core operations. We initiated phase one of our call center standardization, including process mapping as well as beginning the formal enterprise transition of our telephony infrastructure to the cloud. As we mentioned before, this will offer more convenient ways for our members to interact with us and get the information they need. We are starting with our Medicare and marketplace products and expect this work to be completed in early Q3. We also kicked off phase two of our utilization management work, which involves building an enterprise shared services function to serve all three major product lines with a primary focus on enhancing quality and productivity. We completed the Medicare transition, and now have the marketplace transition in motion.
Lastly, back in October, we formally updated our work-at-home policies, as we have learned how to deliver the same level of productivity and service to our members in a more flexible workplace environment. The shift to work-at-home and enhanced flexibility will have a meaningful impact on our ability to recruit and retain talent, but it also means we need to reevaluate our real estate footprint, something Drew mentioned during the December Investor Day. We have already evaluated approximately 25% of our facility locations and see opportunities for a material downsizing of our footprint. Expect updates on that work as we get through the full real estate portfolio.
Finally, I want to touch on the capital allocation pillar of our value creation plan and particularly the portfolio review process. Closing out the story on USMM, we used the proceeds from that majority divestiture to execute $200 million in share repurchases in December. We are aggressively working our way through the non-core portfolio with a consistent, rigorous, and strategic evaluation process. We will continue to provide updates on this work as it progresses.
While the value creation work is critically important, it is also complex. Let me assure you that we have full organizational commitment to our value creation objectives and are laser focused on leveraging Centene's size and scale to unlock significant value for our stakeholders. But let me also take this opportunity to thank our leaders and our teams throughout the organization, from our local market CEOs and operational leaders to frontline staff and clinical experts, for their enthusiasm, agility, and willingness to think differently and work differently in service of our members.
Overall, our businesses are performing well. We are building on the strength of our core business lines, and we are making meaningful progress on our commitment to margin expansion, all while delivering for our members, state partners, employees, and shareholders.
I'd now like to turn the call over to Brent for some insights on our core business line performance during Q4.