Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race
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 »
Deal of the Week: Centene/Fidelis 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 »Managed Care Deals Dry Up
Now that the mega-mergers of 2015 have been squashed, deal activity in the Managed Care sector could use a shot in the arm. Through mid-July 2017, only 10 deals have been announced in this sector, on par with 2016’s total of 20 deals. At this rate, it’s unlikely that the sector will reach its 2015 peak of 43 deals. Although 2015 was not a record year, it was the second highest of the century, behind 2000’s total of 47 deals. The Big Four health insurers have ceded the playing field to the smaller players, and financial buyers are stepping in. In 2015, managed care companies accounted for 72% of the 43 deals announced that year and financial buyers only accounted for 5%. Molina... Read More »MCOs Make Deals to Combat High Drug Costs
The rising cost of prescription drugs was part of many candidates’ campaign platforms in the 2016 national elections. The topic has not gone away, and is certainly a factor in the dearth of Big Pharma deals in 2017. Through June 15, M&A in the Pharma sector is down 43%, to 44 transactions, compared with the same period in 2016, which had 77 transactions. Spending is also down in for the first six months of 2017. Through June 15, acquirers announced $19.2 billion in committed financing, down 66% from the same period in 2016, when approximately $56.5 billion was spent. There are deals being done, regarding this issue, but most are not M&A. In fact, several managed care... Read More »Schedule a demo
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