Cigna Corp. agreed to buy Express Scripts Holding Co. for $54 billion in cash and stock, another move toward consolidation between U.S. health insurers and the companies that oversee patients’ drug benefits.

The acquisition is a shakeup for the industry that runs prescription drug programs for insurers and employers, negotiating prices with drugmakers and sometimes delivering treatments directly to patients. Express Scripts, which manages plans covering more than 100 million people, and its rivals are becoming more aggressive with tactics to control costs, increasingly denying coverage of some drugs or requiring high co-payments for expensive treatments.

As the outcry over high drug prices has intensified in recent years in the U.S., the pharmaceutical industry has blamed the pharmacy benefits managers for not always passing on to patients the rebates they negotiate.

Contact us for more information concerning Cigna that is one of our best Insurance Carriers.