http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/letter-shows-aetna-warned-doj-it-would-exit-obamacare-markets-if-merger-challenged?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTW1Jek1EWm1PRFpqWldZeCIsInQiOiJNUE5TM3FXaktDWTF6WFlreiszSFpHRjZBeENcL3ZCS1REN01UQzVvVG9pdGNsSmZnK1BwTlJNWHhzZGdGRzdTckRoS2VqT05tMGVXZTdDWjN5SmVxbW1sR09qRDNnaTBNbEpXY3M5cjZaaUE9In0%3D

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini

Aetna warned the Department of Justice in a July 5 letter that it would leave the public exchange market if the agency went forward and blocked its merger with Humana.

“Our analysis to date makes clear that if the deal were challenged and/or blocked we would need to take immediate actions to mitigate public exchange and ACA small group losses,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said in the letter. “Specifically, if the DOJ sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint.”

The letter to Ryan M. Kantor, assistant chief for litigation in the Antitrust Division, was sent days before the DOJ’s injunction blocking Aetna’s $37 billion merger with Humana, and also Anthem’s planned $54 billion deal with Cigna.

This week, Aetna announced it was exiting the Obamacare-created exchange market in all but four states in 2017, a reduction of its current participation in 15 states.

However, Aetna left the exchange markets after seeing deteriorating numbers in its second quarter results, the insurer said in a request for comment today.

“That deterioration, and not the DOJ challenge to our Humana transaction, is ultimately what drove us to announce the narrowing of our public exchange presence for the 2017 plan year,” Aetna said.