November 20th, 2008

The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee is scheduled to meet today at 12:30 to consider recommendations on the proposed merger between Highmark, Inc., and Independence Blue Cross. The meeting is scheduled in Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building.

Both legislative insurance committees have until next week to provide the Insurance Department comments and recommendations regarding the merger. Yesterday’s meeting of the House Insurance Committee did not yield a collective recommendation. Instead, Chairman DeLuca will be sending a packet to Commissioner Ario that contains information from yesterday’s meeting, transcripts from their two public hearings, a DVD of the recent roundtable discussion, all information sent to the committee on the issue and any written remarks from individual committee members.