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PBM Mergers: Vertical Integration Is Cool – But Don’t Overlook Horizontal Consolidation In Part D

 
• By Michael McCaughan

It is hard not to get caught up in the excitement of reinventing health care deliver amid the wave of retail, PBM and insurer merger agreements and rumors. But there is an immediate impact that might be overlooked: the Medicare Part D market is going to be much more consolidated.

The headlines around the pending mergers of CVS Health Corp./Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp./Express Scripts Holding Co. – along with a rumored combination of Walmart and Humana Inc. – understandably highlight the implications of vertical integration in the health care sector.

The ideas of how Aetna might leverage the CVS “minute clinics” are really important – to say nothing of the possibility that the dominant name in brick-and-mortar retail (Walmart) could become a big health insurance company too. And of course every story notes the ongoing speculation about Amazon’s plans to reinvent health care

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