Fierce Healthcare reports on last Monday’s Delaware chancery court hearing concerning the Anthem – Cigna merger agreement.  Anthem has asked for a 60 day preliminary injunction barring Cigna from terminating the merger agreement while Anthem seeks U.S. Supreme Court review of last week’s D.C. Circuit decision against the merger. The Delaware judge promised a quick decision on this request.

CBS News reports on a new initiative called Inside Rx that was announced on Monday. The initiative involves Express Scripts, several drug manufacturers, and Good Rx. Inside Rx allows people to pay the PBMs price for many brand name chronic care drugs.  Because of anti-kickback laws, the program can’t be used with insurance, but may be used with flexible spending accounts. People on Medicare, Tricare, etc. can’t use the product. It’s a useful gap filler.

Studies and reports —

• CAQH which does a good job attempting to streamline health benefits, issued its annual report. 
• Health Affairs published a study on affordable care organizations. Fierce Healthcare discusses the study which has some useful findings. 
• TechTarget tells us about BitGlass’s 2016 report on healthcare data breaches. The trend is finally moving in the right direction.