Aetna and Heartland Health Roll out New Health Plan
January 19 2012 - 4:44PM
Business Wire
Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Heartland Health in St. Joseph, Missouri
announced this week the Aetna Whole Health Midwest Community Health
Solutions Plan. The new group health plan will provide a more
coordinated health care experience designed to improve the health
outcomes of those enrolled at a premium that is approximately 5 to
12 percent lower than Aetna’s other local products.
“Heartland is incredibly progressive in its approach to wellness
and its outreach to businesses and their employees to improve their
overall health,” said Keith Barnes, president of Aetna’s Kansas and
Missouri markets. “This new plan builds on Heartland’s track record
of successfully working with local businesses.”
“Aetna is unique among insurance companies because it has a very
sophisticated system for gathering and synthesizing information
about its members’ health, and providing insights into the
potential outcomes and costs,” explained Linda Bahrke, an
administrator at Heartland.
“Through the ActiveHealth CareEngine®, Heartland monitors the health care conditions
of its Aetna members and alerts physicians when there are potential
opportunities to improve patient care,” Bahrke continued. “Aetna
provides information that helps everyone more effectively
coordinate care – things like an alert when a member isn’t taking
the medication that was prescribed; suggestions of potential
therapies that might be recommended for the diagnosis but that
haven’t been undertaken; and suggestions of tests for certain
diagnoses that might not have been ordered. You just don’t see this
sophistication with a lot of other health insurance companies.”
“When you merge Heartland’s strength of working with businesses
on wellness and Aetna’s strength of collecting and making valuable
use of medical information, it creates an excellent health
insurance product that is unique not only here, but throughout the
country,” said Barnes.
Heartland and Aetna say this group health insurance product is
targeted to businesses that want to invest in their employees’
health and are willing to take the steps necessary to make the plan
effective. This includes encouraging employees to take a voluntary
health assessment and undergo biometric screening. In addition,
Heartland wellness and care management staff will work with
businesses to conduct onsite reviews of the results with employees
and help them more effectively manage and access their health care.
Heartland staff may also make proactive outreaches to health plan
members during the year.
“A strong commitment to wellness and getting employees more
involved with their health care is vitally important for this type
of plan to be effective,” said Barnes.
Because of Aetna’s extensive health information technology
capabilities, the company is able to identify an employer’s
health-related problem areas and offer Heartland programming to
address those problem areas. For instance, the report might
indicate 30 percent of a company’s employees wish to lose weight.
Heartland can help the employer provide weight management support
for their employees. If there are a large percentage of people with
diabetes, Heartland can set up diabetic education sessions at the
worksite. On an individual basis, if an employee has a particular
diagnosis, but hasn’t had an important test or treatment, Aetna’s
systems can highlight the missing item and Heartland can contact
the individual’s physician to see if there was a particular reason
for the omission.
The goal is to help individuals receive the finest care possible
using the best practices known in medicine. Following this approach
and being proactive with the management of chronic disease
ultimately helps hold down health care costs, avoiding costlier
care when chronic diseases and health risks are neglected.
Heartland has had a very proactive approach in dealing with the
health of its own employees over the last 10 years and has seen
annual increases of less than six percent in its health insurance
premiums, often considerably less than the increases other local
businesses face. “We see it as proof that this type of approach
works,” said Bahrke.
The new Heartland/Aetna plan is currently available for fully
insured group purchasers. However, Heartland and Aetna plan to
expand to individual plans and self-insured plans in the
future.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care
benefits companies, serving approximately 36.3 million people with
information and resources to help them make better informed
decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of
traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance
products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental,
behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical
management capabilities and health care management services for
Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals,
college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans,
governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and
expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.
About Heartland Health
Heartland Health, an integrated health delivery system in St.
Joseph, Mo., includes a medical center, physician practices and a
foundation. Heartland seeks to improve the health of area
individuals and communities and to provide the right care, at the
right time, in the right place, at the right cost with outcomes
second to none. Through commitment to this mission, Heartland
Health has become the healthcare leader in a 21-county area of
northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska.
www.heartland-health.com.
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