business
Delaware presses for more details on Blues deal
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 17, 2011
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has asked Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware for more information about its proposed affiliation with the much larger Pennsylvania Blues plan Highmark.
Delaware Blues officials said the affiliation will allow it to make needed investments in technology that require significant capital, and both companies promised efficiencies of scale as a result of the affiliation.
The pending affiliation, which the two plans announced in August 2010, is subject to approval or denial by the insurance commissioner's office, but the attorney general contends that he has the authority to review it as part of his oversight of nonprofit entities.
"We will ensure that all the necessary questions are asked and answered before this transaction proceeds," Biden said in a news release.
Among other things in his Jan. 4 letter, Biden asked for more details about what will happen to the Blues' financial reserves and whether Highmark might move jobs out of Delaware.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/01/17/bibf0117.htm.
