[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Thomas.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]For our Readers following the Continuing Soap Opera which involves the payer mergers of Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna, some updates:

• Anthem-Cigna still undecided by despite our 19 January report that the merger would be denied by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia. Reading the SEC 8-K filed in July 2015, the extension to 30 April is automatic if the merger is not consummated or is non-appealable by 31 January. Likely this is to Cigna’s chagrin, as multiple sources over the two years this has been going on have detailed the growing disagreements between the two companies. As we noted in January, Anthem is also running up against ‘the Blues rule’ where it does business as a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. The arguments that this internal competition is beneficial are pretzel-like indeed.
• A labor union investor, Westchester Putnam Counties Heavy & Highway Laborers Local 60 Benefits Funds, is suing Aetna for shareholder losses in the Federal District Court in the District of Connecticut (complaint here). The demand is for a jury trial and details what they believe to be false and misleading statements by management and not disclosing adverse facts.

Healthcare Dive is recommended for their two deeper dives: 1 Feb on Anthem-Cigna and the outcomes of both mergers, 30 Jan on the labor union lawsuit. The likelihood of either happening becomes more remote as time goes by, but there could be a surprise.