Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
Read how Independence Blue Cross, Greater Philadelphia’s biggest health insurer, is growing by partnering, not merging, with other organizations.
“We believe that we are of a size that if we continue to go it alone, we will be very successful, but we are very open to exploring strategic alliances, collaborations, and who knows what that means in terms of consolidations down the road,” Daniel J. Hilferty, chief executive of Independence, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“They have enough revenue and enough interrelationships that they are what I would consider a much more secure group,” said Peter L. Gualtieri, director of business development in the Philadelphia office of Savoy Associates, a health-insurance agency in Florham Park, N.J., told the paper.
Independence has customers in 24 states, largely through its control of Philadelphia-based AmeriHealth Caritas, the nation’s seventh-largest manager of Medicaid health benefits.
“They are finding these efficiencies without having to merge,” said Mark Cherry, principal analyst for Florida and Pennsylvania at Decision Resources Group, a health-care data firm.
He told the paper that a major rationale for insurance mergers — leverage over hospitals — is no longer quite as powerful. “Insurers are working more closely with health systems and saying, ‘let’s manage population health together.’ ”