Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. must disclose to federal antitrust enforcers letters from in-house lawyers in which the insurance companies accuse each other of breaking their $54 billion merger deal, a Washington judge ruled.

The judge, Amy Berman Jackson, agreed with the findings of the retired judge who’s overseeing discovery disputes in the government’s blockbuster antitrust suit, filed in July. Lawyers for Anthem, which is based in Indianapolis, and Cigna, which is based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, had resisted revealing those in-house letters to the U.S. Justice Department.

Government lawyers had argued that the in-house letters would “reveal the current state of hostility between defendants” and illuminate challenges the companies face as they defend their proposed merger. Attorneys for the insurance giants told Richard Levie, the retired judge, that “any disagreements between the in-house lawyers are irrelevant to the efficiencies that can be achieved from the proposed acquisition.”

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

C. Ryan Barber

C. Ryan Barber, based in Washington, covers government affairs and regulatory compliance. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @cryanbarber