Cigna Healthcare has resumed merger talks with US-based Humana, according to reports.
Reports from Bloomberg said the two US-based health insurance companies had held informal discussions recently about a potential deal.
Talks between the pair had fallen apart last year over price.
The report noted the Humana share price increased following the news as the Cigna share price declined.
However despite the uplift the Humana share price of around US$262 today was almost half the US$516 at the time of the previous talks one year ago.
That compares to an increase in the Cigna share price from US$304 one year ago to US$321 today.
Cigna Healthcare is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company headquartered in Connecticut, with about 72,000 global employees and is ranked as the third largest health insurer in the US market.
The insurer has a global international private medical insurance (IPMI) operation, but has ended its domestic UK business.
It previously provided private medical insurance (PMI) in the UK market, but Health & Protection reported in an exclusive in September 2022 that Cigna was withdrawing from the UK domestic private medical insurance (PMI) and healthcare trusts market.
And in July 2023 Health & Protection reported that Unum Dental had secured the renewal rights for its dental customers as the US-based insurer divested its UK dental business.
Humana is also an American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is ranked as the fourth largest health insurance provider in the US market and has approximately 67,000 employees.
Although both health insurance companies, the two companies have a different stated focus.
While Cigna is focused on private employer-based health coverage, Humana is mainly focused on the US government health insurance programme Medicare.
Any agreement would have to get the approval of US regulators.
If successful, the merged company would still be smaller than the US-market leader, UnitedHealth Group.