Thursday, March 8, 2018

The CIGNA - Express Scripts Merger––So Much for Price Transparency and Competition

CIGNA just announced that it will buy pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts for $67 billion. In December, CVS said it would buy Aetna for $69 billion.

Already, UnitedHealth, through its Optum data technology and OptumRx pharmacy benefit manager subsidiaries, has detailed health care utilization information on over 115 million consumers, four out of five hospitals, 67,000 pharmacies, 100,000 physician practices, 300 health plans, and government agencies in 34 states and D.C.

Remember the good old days when we complained about the health insurance company oligopoly with just a few players controlling most of the market share in any given market?

We appear to be quickly on the way to a new and different kind of oligopoly controlling an even wider swath of the market with these new health care system aggregators being created.

Subscribe

Avoid having to check back. Subscribe to Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review and receive an email each time we post.

Blog Archive