Aetna and Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance Announce Accountable Care Collaboration in Dallas

Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance today announced an accountable care collaboration and the introduction of the Aetna Whole HealthSM product in North Texas. Aetna Whole Health is a collection of benefit plans designed to give members in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Parker, Rockwall and Tarrant counties access to highly coordinated care from physicians and facilities in the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance. The plans will be effective for self-insured customers starting on October 1, 2014, and are anticipated to be available for fully insured customers in early 2015.

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.

The combined Aetna Whole Health – Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance will provide Aetna members access to more than 900 primary care physicians, 27 hospitals, 2,800 specialists and six urgent care facilities in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Aetna members already enrolled in a fully insured plan and who have seen a Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance physician in the last 12 months will automatically become part of the collaboration on October 1st. Those members will receive the additional benefit of an integrated care delivery model, which includes the tracking of metrics to achieve higher quality care and lower costs.

“Aetna is pleased to work with Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance to provide a simpler and more efficient health care experience for our members while helping employers to manage health care costs,” said Ralph Holmes, Aetna’s president for North Texas. “By working collaboratively with organizations such as Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance, we are changing the health care system to focus on quality and affordability while ensuring that our members receive care that helps them live healthier, more productive lives.”

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 Whole HealthSM - Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance network;
• A more coordinated, personalized experience for patients; and
• Better health care outcomes.

“Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance is very pleased about this participation with Aetna’s accountable care solutions, which will combine expertise and bring commitment to meeting the shared goals and vision of improving quality, reducing cost, and clinically integrating for the populations that we mutually serve,” said Carl E. Couch, MD, MMM, president, Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance.

New payment agreements reward improvements in quality and costs of care

The agreement features a new payment model to reward Baylor Scott & White Quality 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. Aetna’s solutions help all types of patients, regardless of payer. Information about Accountable Care Solutions from Aetna is available at www.aetnaacs.com.

About Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance

Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance (BSWQA) represents a commitment to deliver high quality health care, in an efficient, integrated manner for the patients and communities it serves. Through its dedication to collaboration and accountability, BSWQA has quickly emerged as a leader in the industry for creating a care system that is more integrated, coordinated, and accountable; one that strives to deliver the right care, at the right place, and at the right time. Through its accountable, evidence-based, collective, proactive, value-driven efforts BSWQA is a model for a better health care system for the future.

Covering the North Texas region, BSWQA is a comprehensive accountable care network comprised of more than 2,500 primary and specialty care physicians, 26 hospitals, post-acute care facilities, and other stakeholders throughout the care continuum assuming joint responsibility for achieving the Triple Aim framework: Better Care, Better Health, Better Value. For more information visit www.baylorqualityalliance.com

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified healthcare 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. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @aetna