Meetings May Provide Few Answers on Blue Cross Merger

A series of public meetings this week will shine a fresh spotlight on plans to merge Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware with Pittsburgh health insurance giant Highmark Inc. But members of the public are likely to remain in the dark about answers to several key questions:

• What will happen to Blue Cross' $173 million in reserves?
  
• To what extent do Blue Cross executives stand to benefit financially from the merger?
  
• Will any of Blue Cross' 630 Delaware employees be laid off?

Delaware's Insurance Department and Attorney General Beau Biden are reviewing the Highmark deal separately but have done little to answer these questions publicly nine months after the deal was proposed.

Public meetings on the deal are scheduled in all three counties, starting today. But state officials say they will not answer questions this week about the reserves, executive compensation and layoffs. Regulatory reviews of the deal are ongoing -- and state officials do not have all the answers from Blue Cross and Highmark, they say. Blue Cross, for its part, says it's still developing a "detailed affiliation plan" and insists it's responding to questions from state officials, if slowly.

READ MORE …