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Five years after the Affordable Care Act helped set off a health-care merger frenzy, the pace of consolidation is accelerating, transforming the medical marketplace into a land of giants. The trend is under a new spotlight now, as Congress zeroes in on the competitive and cost impact of proposed deals that would collapse the health-insurance industry’s top five players into just three massive companies, each with more than $100 billion in annual revenue. On Tuesday, a Senate subcommittee is set to hear testimony from the chief executives of Aetna Inc., which plans to acquire Humana Inc., and Anthem Inc., which is seeking to buy Cigna Corp., as well as the head of the American Hospital Association. (Wilde Mathews, 9/21)

A pair of blockbuster health insurance mergers worth nearly $100 billion will put the industry under the political spotlight on Tuesday when the companies' top executives face a congressional committee for the first time since the deals were announced this summer. The CEOs of Anthem and Aetna — which are proposing to swallow up Cigna and Humana, respectively — will try to convince a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that reducing the number of large, national insurance companies from five down to three won't hurt consumers. But the huge mergers have raised concerns that consumers will get stuck with fewer choices and higher prices when they shop for coverage. (Demko, 9/21)

A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday weighed whether to revive a lawsuit filed by the American Psychiatric Association and individual psychiatrists accusing a healthcare insurer of discriminating against patients with mental health conditions. The APA sued Anthem Health Plans Inc and its affiliates in 2013, claiming its policies were designed to pay less for mental health treatments than more general medical care. For example, Anthem allegedly did not allow psychiatrists to bill for psychotherapy on the same days they provided non-mental-health services. (Pierson, 9/21)

As fewer players control more of the health care industry, kidney-care giant DaVita HealthCare Partners is putting its weight behind being a consolidator. The Denver-based company, which has business divisions centered in renal care and a burgeoning primary and specialty care network, on Monday announced plans to acquire The Everett Clinic, a 20-site medical practice in Snohomish County, Wash., just north of Seattle. (Wallace, 9/21)