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In an effort to expedite her decision, the federal judge overseeing the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust challenge to Anthem and Cigna's $53 billion merger will split the trial in two. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told the government and insurers on Tuesday that she will hear testimony about the massive merger's impact on national markets in late November before turning her attention to DOJ's concerns about local markets in December. (Teichert, 10/4)

In its court battle to block the merger of Anthem and Cigna, the U.S. Justice Department plans to use Connecticut’s market as a prime example of why increased consolidation in the health insurance field would hurt consumers. Depending on the area of the state, Anthem is the largest seller of individual and group policies, with either Cigna or Aetna in second or third place, said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, who has joined the lawsuit along with his counterparts in 10 other states and the District of Columbia. (Radelat, 10/5)