A health insurance provider has filed a lawsuit against the City of New York challenging the process used to award the contract for the new NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan for New York City retirees who are eligible for Medicare.

The city and the Municipal Labor Committee carefully followed the process for negotiated acquisition, as outlined in Section 3-04 of the city's Procurement Policy Board Rules, when it selected an alliance of EmblemHealth and Empire BlueCross BlueShield to administer the new plan.

The recent lawsuit filed by Aetna, one of the losing bidders, is meritless. We employed expert health benefits consultants to guide us, and the entire process was monitored by legal counsel for both the city and the MLC.

Our goal was to continue to provide retirees with the best and most cost-effective healthcare coverage possible. After a long and painstaking process of review, the best vendor was selected.