Cain Hayes, the president and CEO of Point32Health, says the five-year integration of the Harvard Pilgrim and Tufts health insurers is moving forward well ahead of schedule, but integration doesn’t mean the two brands will disappear. 

“We have no intention of consolidating those brands into one brand,” he said on The Codcast with John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis, a fellow at the Lown Institute. 

Hayes said Harvard Pilgrim will focus on commercial business and Tufts will prioritize government work, primarily Medicaid and Medicare. He said the two health insurers, which merged  at the start of 2021, are blending many aspects of their operations – they now have one headquarters in Canton and utilize one pharmacy benefit manager. 

The combined company has 2.2 million members. “That gives us the scale to compete with not only our regional competitors [Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is the largest player] but in many cases our national competitors as well in this market. So, a ways to go, but the early signs are sort of the value of the combination is really bearing fruit from a competitive standpoint,” he said.