Aetna and Seton Health Alliance Form Accountable Care Collaboration in Austin

Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Seton Health Alliance today announced an accountable care collaboration and the introduction of Aetna Whole Health℠ in Austin. Aetna Whole Health is a collection of benefits plans designed to give members access to highly coordinated care from Seton Health Alliance physicians and facilities. The health plans are designed for both self-insured and fully insured customers with employees who live or work in Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. The plans will be effective for self-insured customers on October 1, 2014, and in early 2015 for fully insured members.

The Aetna Whole Health plans are already available to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) of Texas – Active Care employees and dependents; Williamson County (Texas) employees and dependents; and will be available to Austin Independent School District employees and dependents starting on January 1st.

An accountable care collaboration is a group of health care providers who assume responsibility for the quality and cost of care for a group of patients. Aetna members will receive an enhanced level of coordinated care in addition to the member benefits of their current Aetna plan.

“We look forward to working with Seton Health Alliance to provide a new level of coordinated care for our members in the Austin area,” said Michael Nelson, Aetna’s president for South Texas. “This is another example of how Aetna is working with health care providers to promote higher quality care, greater coordination, better health outcomes and lower health care costs.”

The accountable care collaboration gives employers better health care options for their employees, and will feature a new model of health care delivery designed to offer:

• Cost savings to employees who use providers in the Aetna-Seton Health Alliance accountable care network;
• A more coordinated, personalized experience for patients; and
• Better health care outcomes.

“Our mission at Seton Health Alliance is to improve the health of the populations we serve by delivering high quality, patient-centered care,” said Dr. Greg Sheff, Seton Health Alliance CEO. “This collaboration with Aetna is a huge step forward in helping us advance the delivery of efficient, effective and accountable care in Central Texas.”

New payment agreements reward improvements in quality and costs of care

The agreement features a new payment model to reward Seton Health Alliance for meeting quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction measures, including:

• The percentage of Aetna members who get recommended preventive care and screenings;
• Better management of patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart failure;
• Reductions in avoidable hospital readmission rates; and
• Reductions in emergency room visits.

Aetna is working with health care organizations across the country to develop products and services that support value-driven, patient-centered care for all health care consumers. Nationally, more than 2.3 million Aetna members are served by value-based health care models.

What is Seton Health Alliance?

Seton Health Alliance is a group of physicians, hospitals, and health care providers and facilities who have come together to create a health care network that can improve the quality of patient health care and increase patient satisfaction, while reducing costs. Seton Health Alliance is funded and supported by Seton Healthcare Family, a leading provider of comprehensive, advanced health care services in Central Texas. Seton Healthcare Family is a member of Ascension Health, the largest not-for-profit health network in the nation.

Physician-led and governed, Seton Health Alliance seeks to:

• Increase coordination and communication among all members of the patient’s health care team.
• Promote patient health and healing
• Help make the conversation between a patient and their health provider respectful, useful and understandable.
• Find ways to give health care providers time in their work day to fully focus on patient care.

Increasing numbers of community physicians are choosing to become members of Seton Health Alliance. Health care providers, facilities and providers have chosen to be part of Seton Health Alliance because they want to improve the health care experience of their patients.

Through its collaborations with commercial insurers such as Aetna, Seton Health Alliance is furthering the delivery of efficient and effective health care to Central Texas.

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 45 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, Medicaid health care management services, workers’ compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna’s customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. Learn more about Aetna’s journey to make quality health care more affordable and accessible for all. www.aetna.com @aetna