Thursday, December 3, 2015
Critics of Health Insurer Mergers Urge States to Act; Commonwealth Fund Quoted
Critics of the planned mergers of four large health insurers into two companies want state regulators to vigorously investigate the impact of the consolidations.
Antitrust attorney David Balto, who has warned against alleged anticompetitive consequences from the proposed mergers of Anthem Inc. with Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc. with Humana Inc., urged state insurance regulators to investigate the potential mergers at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting Nov. 20.
“States have more power than the Department of Justice” (DOJ) in stopping mergers or getting concessions from merging companies, he told Bloomberg BNA Nov. 24, pointing to the proposed consolidation of Highmark Inc. and Independence Blue Cross in Pennsylvania that was blocked in 2009 by that state's former insurance commissioner, Joel Ario.
Eric Schneider, senior vice president for policy and research at the Commonwealth Fund, told Bloomberg BNA Nov. 25 that state regulators typically have been more active in intervening against proposed mergers of providers such as hospitals in their states, citing the withdrawal of Boston hospital company Partners HealthCare's plan to acquire South Shore Hospital in the face of objections from the state's attorney general. He said that having fewer insurers results in higher premiums for consumers. The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that, among other things, supports the Affordable Care Act. . .