PA: Blue Cross merger plan was 'anti-competitive'
PA Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario says he's glad Highmark and Independence Blue Cross scrapped their merger plan, because it was 'anti-competitive'
The demise of the proposed marriage of Pittsburgh's Highmark Inc. with Philadelphia's Independence Blue Cross is "welcome," because the $17 billion combination "would have generated significant efficiencies," but also "lessened competition and disadvantaged providers to the detriment of the insurance-buying public," says state Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario in this statement. Took 21 months of hearings and filings to learn this.
Since Highmark and IBC don't much compete against each other, and since we didn't read all 21 months of proceedings, we're not exactly sure how keeping these companies apart (and, by Ario's admission, less efficient than they would be together) improves competition for local doctors, employers or sick people. Their regional market share remains more or less intact, and each maintains its separate board and bureaucracy, at opposite ends of the state.
But we do know the doctors' lobby is happy now.