Although the Justice Department has said a merger between Indianapolis-based Anthem and Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna would impede Cigna's innovative physician contracts, Anthem argues it has more value-based agreements, The Hartford Courant reports.
A federal judge ruled Anthem's proposed $54 billion bid for Cigna anticompetive in early February, and Anthem appealed the decision later that month. In the initial merger case, Anthem said increased negotiating power from a merger with Cigna would allow the resulting entity to transfer $2.4 billion in cost savings to its policyholders.
However, the judge ruled the savings may negatively affect providers, may not transfer directly to consumers and were speculative, according to the report. In a reply to the antitrust division filed Monday, Anthem disagreed with the DOJ's ruling that a bigger Anthem would not generate consumer cost savings or maintain physician agreements.
"Anthem is already more successful at lowering [medical] utilization than Cigna," the insurer wrote in its reply.
A Washington, D.C. circuit court has expedited Anthem's appeal of the merger's block, and will hear oral arguments for the case March 24. That's about one month before the insurers' April 30 merger agreement deadline.
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