Walmart, Humana Looking At A Deal, Reports Say

By Susan Rupe

A planned merger between Humana and Aetna was dashed by a federal judge, and CVS Health went on to acquire Aetna. Now it appears Humana may have found a new suitor.

Walmart is in the early stages of acquiring the health insurance giant, The Wall Street Journal reported. The details of the proposed deal were not available, the Journal said, and neither party would comment.

It's the latest in a series of mega-deals in the health care world - some that materialized and others that collapsed.

In 2015, Humana and Aetna were headed down the road to a merger, and Anthem was on the way to acquiring Cigna. But these deals failed to go through when the federal courts sided with the Justice Department’s case that they would harm competition.

Other large health care deals that have been in the news include:

Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway announced a partnership to cut health-care costs and improve services for their U.S. employees.
Cigna announced it will spend about $52 billion to acquire the nation's biggest pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts.
Albertsons, the grocery chain that owns retail brands Safeway and Vons, is plunging deeper into the pharmacy business with a deal to buy Rite Aid, the nation's third-largest drugstore chain.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.