Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Tuesday Quick Hits

OPM is testifying this morning before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee about its data breaches according to this Hill report.  Meanwhile, OMB directed federal agencies to commence a 30 day long cybersecurity sprint as explained in this Federal News Radio report. Remediation is a standard practice following a data breach. 

Yesterday CVS announced that it had struct a virtually permanent deal with Target stores to replace Target owned pharmacies located in their stores with CVS pharmacies according to this Forbes report. "The deal will increase CVS’s presence in key cities across the west, including Denver, Seattle, Portland, and Salt Lake City."  Filling in these geographic gaps in the CVS pharmacy chain is helpful for FEHBP carriers that use the CVS Caremark prescription benefit management service.

Finally, and it's an earthquake alert, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that United Healthcare is bidding to purchase Aetna and Anthem is bidding to purchase CIGNA.  Those are the four largest health insurers in the U.S.
UnitedHealth made a preliminary takeover approach to Aetna Inc. in the last few days, people familiar with the matter said. Given Aetna’s market value of about $42 billion, any deal for the company would likely be valued at least that high. UnitedHealth has a market value of more than $110 billion. Aetna has been eyeing Humana Inc., which is exploring a sale. 
Meanwhile, Anthem and Cigna Corp. have been in discussions about a deal for months, though Cigna has rebuffed Anthem’s advances, according to people familiar with the matter. Based on the per-share price Anthem offered, a deal would be valued at some $45 billion.
Holy moley, batman.

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