Health Net Inc., a managed care operator caught in the cross hairs of Connecticut’s attorney general, says it will resume buying up its shares on the open market.
The Los Angeles-based company says it has about $103.3 million available of the $700 million previously authorized to repurchase shares. It suspended the purchases in November 2008.
Health Net CEO Jay Gallert said in a statement the board’s authorization to resume buying shares “underscores our confidence about the future.”
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced last week his office has begun an antitrust probe into Health Net’s proposed $510 million sale to UnitedHealthcare of its Northeast division covering 578,000 members in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
The Connecticut Insurance Department last Friday formally blessed the deal.
Blumenthal also has asked criminal investigators to look into circumstances surrounding Health Net’s six-month delay in reporting as missing a laptop computer containing sensitive personal and medical information for about 450,000 Connecticut residents.
Health Net initially reported the laptop as lost, but Blumenthal said he has received information to suggest the device was stolen. Health Net has insisted information on the laptop is encoded and cannot be accessed without special software.
