by Robert King | Oct 18, 2019 11:55am
Centene and WellCare announced that another five states have
approved the pending merger of the two insurers, bringing the total number of
states that have greenlit the deal to 24.
Centene said on Friday that the deal is expected to be completed
by the first half of 2020. However, the potential $17 billion merger will still
need approval from the remaining state regulators.
“We will continue to work with the remaining state insurance
regulators to demonstrate how we will provide recipients with access to affordable,
high-quality services and products as well as deliver fair
compensation for providers and create savings for states,” Centene CEO
Michael Neidorff said in a statement.
State insurance regulators in Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia,
Ohio and Texas approved the deal, which if completed would create one of the
largest government plan insurers for Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care
Act exchanges.
However, the Department of Justice still needs to approve the
deal, which is already getting opposition from provider groups.
The American Hospital Association warned that DOJ needs to fully
investigate the merger because of concerns that it will harm competition for
Medicare Advantage plans.
If the merger goes through then the new company would be the
fourth-largest payer in the private Medicare space that includes Medicare
Advantage and Part D plans. Overall there would be 22 million members across
all 50 states.
The AHA said that DOJ has already blocked other major healthcare mergers, such as
the Humana and Aetna merger, over concerns about consolidation in the Medicare
Advantage market.
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