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The feds have all but sanctioned it …
Monday, May 19, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.
The feds have all but sanctioned it, and the state long ago gave its conditional blessing. So what makes a bunch of doctors and a big union think they can overturn the approval of that mega-health care merger between Nevada’s homegrown HMO, Sierra Health Services, and a national giant, UnitedHealth? Hope? Delusion? The state medical association’s mouthpiece, Larry Matheis, said last week that the federal approvals were “disgusting,” that the Justice Department had done little to mitigate the effects on the state. That was a strong word for the usually modulated Matheis, exposing the raw passions that exist here over the merger. These doctors, with the help of strange bedfellows in SEIU, don’t seem ready to fold just yet.
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It is not surprising that a broad cross section of medical providers and consumers still oppose the terms of the merger. The only monopoly situation the Fed/State approval addressed was that involving Medicare HMO programs (UnitedHealth must divest Secure Horizons to Humana, thus maintaing two choices for seniors who can only afford an HMO...Senior Dimensions and Secure Horizons.) The requirement that United make broad charitable contributions does nothing to address non-Medicare HMO considerations.