Aetna And Banner Health Expand Accountable Care Relationship To Support More Than 200,000 Patients

HARTFORD, Conn., May 10, 2012 — Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today it is expanding its relationship with Banner Health Network to include full technology support for population health management and patient services for more than 200,000 patients. The agreement includes support for the 50,000 Medicare fee-for-service patients covered under the Pioneer ACO shared savings program and members in Aetna’s ACO relationship with Banner Health Network.

Aetna will fully implement its broad “technology stack” and care management services to support greater care quality, coordination and convenience for these Banner Health doctors and their patients. The agreement includes implementation of the following capabilities from Aetna companies:

• Health information exchange technology from Medicity to enable the secure, two-way exchange of health information across a patient’s entire care team, including hospitals, physicians, labs, pharmacies and other ambulatory services;
• Active CareTeam^SM from Active Health Management to give physicians access to CareEngine®-powered, point-of-care clinical decision support services and a desktop-based workflow tool to track, monitor, coordinate and report on patient health outcomes; and
• Smartphone and online appointment setting and pre-registration services for patients through iTriage, one of the most downloaded health and fitness apps in both the iTunes® App store and Android™ Market.

“In order to succeed in the delivery of high quality, high experience, affordable care, we must integrate clinical activities across the patient’s continuum of care. This requires data sharing among our providers, and the workflow integration that can result,” said Dr. Tricia Nguyen, Chief Medical Officer for Banner Health Network. “Actionable data is the currency for change in healthcare.”

“Today’s traditional electronic medical records have limited value in providing the level of clinical insights needed to succeed in accountable care organizations,” said Charles Kennedy, MD, chief executive officer for Aetna Accountable Care Solutions. “Aetna technologies marry clinical and claim information to create a broader patient record available to the entire care team. Then we bring evidence-based intelligence, workflow tools and care management services to help physicians monitor, measure, coordinate and improve patient care.”

Banner Health Network is an Arizona patient care and business partnership between Arizona Integrated Physicians, the Banner Medical Group, the Banner Physician Hospital Organization and Banner Health. More than 2,600 Banner-affiliated physicians in the Phoenix metro area are part of the Banner Health Network. In December 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced it had selected the Banner Health Network as one of 32 organizations participating in the new Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) initiative. The Pioneer ACO Model began January 1, 2012, and is one of several initiatives underway at CMS designed to support the formation of ACOs.

The combination of technology and services from Medicity, ActiveHealth and iTriage, all Aetna subsidiaries, represents the largest implementation of Aetna’s robust provider and patient technologies to date. The combined Aetna technologies will complement existing Banner technology to power a new level of clinical integration and convenience in health care for these patients. The capabilities offered through the Aetna companies are part of the Aetna Accountable Care Solutions suite of services.

In November, Aetna and Banner announced the first stage of their accountable care collaboration, which included the introduction of Aetna Whole Health^SM, an ACO-based, commercial health care product for small and middle market employers. Members in the Aetna Whole Health plan will receive the same health IT-supported services, including the iTriage appointment and pre-registration service.

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.1 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 and health information technology services. Our 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.