OCT 27, 2017 @ 08:00
AM
I write about healthcare business and policy Opinions
expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Even before reports surfaced Thursday
claiming that CVS Health was in talks to buy Aetna, the nation’s third-largest
health insurer, the two were known to be discussing forming closer
ties.
But a full-blown merger of the healthcare giants
would be complicated and unlikely given recent antitrust scrutiny in healthcare
and given that CVS is already going into business with
an Aetna rival, Anthem.
Anthem just last week said it was forming its own pharmacy benefit
management company IngenioRx with CVS, which operates a PBM.
That was seen as a way to compete with the nation's largest health
insurer, UnitedHealth Group, which owns a PBM, OptumRx.
But CVS operating a PBM
with Anthem, the No. 2 health insurer, while owning Aetna, the No. 3
insurer, would be unusual coming off a period of intense
antitrust scrutiny of the health insurance industry. Aetna and Humana, the
nation’s fourth-largest insurer, pulled the plug on their merger last year
after intense antitrust scrutiny over the potential creation of a monopoly
purchaser of health services.
Neither CVS or Aetna would comment. “As a
matter of policy we don't comment on market rumors such as this,” a CVS
spokesman said Thursday afternoon.
The Wall Street Journal reported
Thursday afternoon that the drugstore chain was in talks to buy
Aetna for more than $200 a share, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
Such a deal would value Aetna at more than $66 billion, the report said. The
New York Times also reported that Aetna
and CVS have been in discussions about a potential merger for “at least two
months.”
But the Anthem partnership came about since those
talks. The Anthem partnership involves a five-year agreement with CVS Health
for services effective Jan. 1, 2020. IngenioRX “will combine its member
and provider engagement initiatives and market leading pricing with CVS’
point-of-sale engagement, such as member messaging and Minute Clinic.”
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