Recently in Insurance Category

Express Scripts has announced that it will acquire WellPoint's pharmacy benefit manager unit, NextRx, in a deal totaling just under $4.68 billion in cash and stock.  The deal includes a 10-year contract for Express to provide prescription management services to Wellpoint once the deal actually closes.  NextRx provides services to roughly 25 million Americans, and manages 265 million prescriptions per year.

The purchase will position Express to compete with its major competitors in the sector, Medco Health Solutions and CVS Caremark.  With the acquisistion, Express will become the second largest player in the pharmacy benefits management sphere, suprassing its rival CVS Caremark.

WellPoint remains one of the country's largest insurers.

The US government will extend money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to life insurance companies in the next few days, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

If the move does in fact happen, the insurance companies will join the financial services industry and the auto manufacturers as the three industries that the government has deemed important enough to the overall economy to warrant bailouts.