Bundeskartellamt clears merger of health insurance funds in the south west of Germany

On 18 April 2011 the Bundeskartellamt cleared the merger of the three health insurance funds AOK Rheinland-Pfalz, AOK Saarland and IKK Südwest under the new name AOK IKK Südwest.

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, stated: "Even though the AOK IKK Südwest merger could be cleared, this case underlines the need for merger control by the Bundeskartellamt in the case of mergers between statutory health insurance funds. Concentration in this area is gaining pace. With merger control the Bundeskartellamt has an important tool for effectively preventing undesirable developments in this area."

The focus of the examination of the merger lay on AOK IKK Südwest's future position as a customer of health care providers on the markets for medical services for those insured under the statutory health system. AOK IKK Südwest's market shares are likely to be very high on regional markets or markets covering the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. However, the relationship between the health insurance funds and health care providers is still largely characterised by so-called collective agreements, i.e. contracts between several parties or their associations on both sides. This also applies to those areas in which so-called selective agreements or integrated care contracts are concluded on an individual basis. The health insurance funds are also faced with in some cases powerful health care provider associations. One example here is the provision of medical aids. Both of these factors sufficiently constrain the market power of the new AOK IKK Südwest.

Finally, there were no major concerns about AOK IKK Südwest's future position as a provider of insurance services. In this respect the new health insurance fund stands in competition with other, mostly active health insurance funds and has only a minor share of this national market.