Managed Care
Managed Care
• WellPoint Health Networks (Thousand Oaks, CA) said last week that on Feb. 24 the company, along with ING America Insurance Holdings, sent a letter to Aetna in which WellPoint and ING expressed a desire to initiate discussions regarding a potential acquisition of Aetna. WellPoint and ING’s letter was based upon publicly available information and was subject to the satisfactory completion of appropriate due diligence. Aetna has indicated that its board would review the letter in due course. In other news, WellPoint completed the acquisition of Rush Prudential Health Plans of Illinois (Chicago). The transaction is valued at $200 million. Rush was co-owned by Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and The Prudential Insurance Company of America. With completion of the acquisition, WellPoint more than doubles its current Illinois medical membership to nearly 600,000 members.
• Retired employees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Western New York (BCBSWNY; Buffalo, NY) say the health insurer has broken a promise to continue their top-of-the-line medical coverage. The former workers can join an HMO and still pay little out of pocket, following the company’s decision to make big changes in its retirement health benefits, reported the Buffalo News. But some of the company’s retirees worry that it will cost them to as much as $4,300 a year to maintain traditional fee-for-service health insurance. And others complain that managed care could place limits on their medical treatment, the Buffalo News reported. Several dozen of the company’s 450 retirees have joined together to explore possible legal action against BCBSWNY. Former workers have also complained to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Buffalo News reported.
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