Updated–Humana exits individual exchange policy markets
Breaking News On this Valentine’s Day, a Romance Gone Flat. This morning, both Aetna and Humana formally announced the end of their merger, ruling out any appeal of the Federal District Court decision against it last month [TTA 24 Jan]. While positioned as a mutual agreement, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini took the key quote in the release: “While we continue to believe that a combined company would create greater value for health care consumers through improved affordability and quality, the current environment makes it too challenging to continue pursuing the transaction. We are disappointed to take this course of action after 19 months of planning, but both companies need to move forward with their respective strategies in order to continue to meet member expectations. Our mutual respect for our companies’ capabilities has grown throughout this process, and we remain committed to a shared goal of helping drive the shift to a consumer-centric health care system.”
Humana’s release limited the announcement to one line and briskly moved on to what really counts–the financials. They will receive a breakup payment of $1 bn (after taxes, $630 million) from Aetna, with their 2017 financial guidance call/release taking place after 4pm EST today. Molina Healthcare, which was to receive certain Aetna Medicare Advantage assets from Aetna post-merger to relieve an over-dominance in some markets, will also receive an undisclosed termination fee. Ka-ching! CNBC, Hartford Courant (Aetna’s hometown paper)
UPDATED 2/14-16 Humana’s financial release announced an updated strategy, share repurchases, a nicely increased dividend–and, buried in the release, their exit effective 2018 from the ‘individual commercial’ business, which are individual policies offered in 11 states through the ACA-created Federal Marketplaces, citing an ‘unbalanced risk pool’ and losses estimated at $45 million for FY17. (By 2018, it may be a moot point.) It is ironic that Aetna’s exit from exchange policies due to unprofitability (or not, as it turned out to be in a few cases) proved to be one of the many bricks that broke the merger, in Judge Bates’ view. The truth is that Aetna and Humana are hardly alone in fleeing the exchanges, and that they have turned out to be unprofitable, as predicted.
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/aetna-tweet.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]Consistent with their behavior over the 19 months of the proposed merger, both Aetna and Humana are publicly respectful, unlike….These other two will never be one, something must be done? The demise of the Anthem-Cigna merger [TTA 9 Feb], now breaking up in Delaware Chancery Court, may mean a period of Payer Merger Quiet. Does this mean a refocusing on benefiting corporate and individual policyholders during the certain changes to come? Aetna may also proceed with a plan to move operations to Boston, which may affect hundreds of jobs, but has pledged to keep a presence in Hartford according to the Hartford Courant. Humana continues to be interested in investment opportunities and, from reports, another merger.
Goodness knows what the end will be! (Hat tip to Ira Gershwin for the title and the interpolated lyrics!)
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