More employers are giving workers the option to tame health insurance costs for next year if they provide a blood sample and reveal details about their health habits.

Cigna Corp. will buy fellow health insurer HealthSpring Inc. in a $3.8 billion deal as it becomes the latest managed care company to snap up a bigger share of the fast-growing Medicare Advantage market.

UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s third-quarter net income edged slightly lower as medical costs climbed and some health care use picked up, but the insurer's revenue grew and it raised its 2011 earnings forecast.

Many workers will see their health insurance costs rise less next year than in more than a decade, partly because consumers are dialing back their health care use, a benefits consultant has found.

The percentage of companies that are already saying they expect to drop health coverage once exchanges start surprised some experts, and if they follow through, it could start a trend that chips away at employer-sponsored health coverage. The Obama administration insists employer-sponsored coverage is poised to increase, not decline.

Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a new survey from a large benefits consultant.

Omnicare Inc. on Tuesday went public with a $457 million offer for pharmacy management services company PharMerica Corp., sending shares of both companies surging.

Cigna Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter net income jumped 39 percent compared to last year's quarter, when a hit from a discontinued business weighed on the managed care company's performance.