Aetna Inc.’s chief executive said Monday he was confident the purchase of smaller rival Humana Inc. will pass antitrust muster with regulators to allow the deal to close in the second half of 2016.
Mark Bertolini said Aetna had already prepared for possible divestitures to address overlaps with Humana’s business. The $37 billion merger, which was announced Friday, is the largest-ever U.S. health insurance deal.
“We took a conservative view of what we would need to divest,” Bertolini said during an investor conference call.
Aetna executives made no predictions on how employment here would change but said they expect the size of Humana’s Louisville, Ky., workforce will not shrink at all, and might grow.
Humana has 12,500 employees in Louisville; Aetna has 6,100 in Connecticut.
Medicare, Medicaid and military insurance, known as Tricare, will be headquartered in Louisville after the merger, which the companies expect will happen in the second half of 2016. Those programs are projected to total 56 percent of the company’s revenues.