About a month ago now, Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. announced its proposed acquisition of Louisville-based Humana Inc. in a $37 billion deal.
Since then, there’s been a lot of doubt expressed about whether regulators would sign off on the acquisition. That doubt has grown more acute since Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. – chief competitors in the industry – have announced a merger of their own.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini addressed this during an investor conference call this morning, noting that the company already has started making antitrust related filings, working with state leaders and doing deep market analyses.
“Since the process is under way, we’ve engaged in conversation with insurance commissioners, with governors, with Washington,” he said.
Regulators are going to be looking at this deal local market by local market.
“We will be big in some markets where we may have to divest. There will be plenty of competitors in each market,” he said.
Bertolini believes the bigger issue will be the level of market share that Blue Cross and Blue Shield holds, saying it’s a dominant competitor in some of the markets in question.
Indianapolis-based Anthem owns Blue Cross Blue Shield operations in 14 states, including Kentucky.
Date: August 4, 2015