Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race

Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race

by | Mar 9, 2018 4:17 pm | Managed Care, Physician Medical Groups, Private Equity

Cigna (NYSE: CI) is buying Express Scripts Holdings (NYSE: ESRX) for $67 billion, including debt. Some company was going to buy it, we just weren’t sure who. The deal follows the announcement of the $77 billion CVS Health/Aetna (NYSE: CVS/AET) deal and the $4.9 billion Optum/DaVita Medical Group (NYSE: UNH/DVA) hook-up in December 2017. That’s when the word “disruption” became the top-ranked meme in U.S. healthcare. We’ll grant that CVS’s move into managed care signals a change in business-as-usual. But Optum’s deal for DaVita’s medical group didn’t break new ground. Optum has long been known as a voracious acquirer of physician... Read More »
Stat of the Week: CVS’s 10.9x EBITDA

Stat of the Week: CVS’s 10.9x EBITDA

by | Oct 27, 2017 6:50 pm | Managed Care

If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em. Or be bought. That’s the path Aetna (NYSE: AET) is taking, perhaps, as the healthcare industry reacts to news that the health insurer is in talks with CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) to be acquired for $200 per share, approximately $66 billion. The deal may never be consummated, but it’s gotten a lot of analysts weighing in on the paradigm shift it would bring to the industry. Frank Morgan of RBC Capital Markets gave the nod to vertical integration between managed care organizations, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and providers, given that the managed care companies’ push for horizontal integration in 2013 ended badly... Read More »
Deal of the Week: Centene/Fidelis Care

Deal of the Week: Centene/Fidelis Care

by | Sep 14, 2017 8:01 pm | Managed Care

Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), the self-declared leader in government-sponsored healthcare in the U.S., has taken over another state. As larger rivals like Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) quit the individual health insurance exchanges around the country, Centene has marched in. In its first major deal since July 2015, Centene is now tops in New York State, thanks to its $3.75 billion deal for not-for-profit Fidelis Care. Fidelis Care provides health insurance coverage through Qualified Health Plans, Child Health Plus, Essential Plan, and Medicaid, available through the New York State of Health Marketplace, as well as through the Medicare Advantage, Dual Advantage,... Read More »

What’s Next for Managed Care?

by | Feb 24, 2017 8:38 pm | Managed Care, Physician Medical Groups, Private Equity

The managed care mega-deals of 2015 have blown up. Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) amicably terminated their $37 billion merger, following a federal judge’s order in January to block the deal on antitrust grounds. The $1 billion termination fee was in the works. A different federal judge blocked Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and Cigna’s (NYSE: CI) $54.2 billion merger on similar grounds. Things turned ugly quickly, as Cigna declared the deal dead and sued Anthem for the $1.85 billion termination fee, and another $13 billion in damages on behalf of its shareholders. Anthem says it will go ahead with the merger. What do the Big Five health insurers do now that they’re... Read More »

Managed Care Deals Deflate in 2016

by | Dec 21, 2016 8:00 am | Managed Care

As the end of the year approaches, the Managed Care sector hasn’t changed its sluggish pace. Just 20 deals have been announced through mid-December, a 56% drop from 2015’s total of 45 transactions. Spending is another matter. As of this writing, nearly $1.7 billion has been committed to financing the 20 deals. There is no way to match last year’s outrageous total of $100.4 billion, courtesy of the two super-mega-deals from Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Anthem (NYSE: ANTM), made for Humana (NYSE: HUM, $37 billion) and Cigna (NYSE: CI, $54 billion), respectively. You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard that the Justice Department challenged those mergers back in... Read More »