BKK Firmus: Merger talks with BKK Pfaff fail

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Another health insurance merger fails

While many health insurance companies are currently examining mergers, a planned merger will not materialize. It is the second failed negotiation within a short period of time.

Many health insurance companies are currently looking for partners. Also due to increasing pressure from politics, numerous health insurance companies announced this year that they wanted to merge with each other, and others are continuing to explore the market. But not every negotiation ultimately leads to a result.

Two more health insurance companies, BKK Firmus and BKK Pfaff, are now breaking off their merger talks. “The current merger discussions have ended. As a result, we will remain independent,” BKK Pfaff says succinctly on its homepage. The small health insurance company from Rhineland-Palatinate (almost 160,000 insured people) did not provide any information about the reasons for the failed negotiations. It is the second failed merger in a short period of time. Just a few days ago, two other company health insurance companies – BKK Scheufelen and Vivida BKK – had informed about the failure of their merger talks.

For BKK Firmus, the failed merger is a minor setback on its way to being able to accept customers from all over Germany again. The Bremen health insurance company, which is considered one of the cheapest providers, was prohibited from doing this by the Federal Office for Social Security in the spring.

Health insurance organization law stipulates that company health insurance companies must limit their activities to federal states in which the original sponsoring companies have a permanent establishment. For example, if a company only has production facilities in Lower Saxony, the company health insurance is only available to insured people from this federal state.

Due to organizational changes in their parent company Since April, BKK Firmus has no longer been allowed to accept new customers from six federal states – including Rhineland-Palatinate. By merging with BKK Pfaff, BKK Firmus could have become active again in the southwestern state. However, the Bremen health insurance company now has to postpone this plan.

However, this is probably only until summer. In addition to the merger with BKK Pfaff, which has now collapsed, BKK Firmus is planning two further mergers. While a merger with BKK Rieker Ricosta Weisser is planned for the turn of the year – the respective administrative boards have already given their approval – a merger with Bielefelder Heimat Krankenkasse is planned for July 1st. This would allow BKK Firmus to take on new customers in all federal states – including Rhineland-Palatinate.