Aetna and Commonwealth Health Create Product-Based High-Performance Network

Business Wire

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aetna (NYSE:AET) and Commonwealth Health are collaborating to establish a high-performance network that includes the introduction of a new health plan. The joint effort is aimed at improving the quality of patient care, creating new choices for consumers, and lowering overall health care costs.

Commonwealth Health and Northeast Pennsylvania Quality Health Alliance, its clinically integrated physician network, will drive efforts to optimize efficiency, coordinate care, and improve communication with patients and providers.

”We’re excited to announce this collaboration with Commonwealth Health,” said Remy Richman, executive director for Aetna in Southeast and Northeast Pennsylvania. ”Aetna is working to provide more healthy days for our members. We’re moving toward new arrangements that reward hospitals and doctors for improving the patient experience and delivering better outcomes.”

The Aetna Whole Health-Commonwealth Health plan will be introduced in Northeast Pennsylvania later this year. The plan will use Commonwealth Health’s group of independent and employed physicians participating in the clinically integrated network, which includes more than 400 providers.

“Commonwealth Health and our affiliated physicians are very pleased to work with Aetna to continually improve the quality of health care provided to our community,” said Cor Catena, CEO of Commonwealth Health. “This collaboration will help ensure that our patients benefit from our efforts to provide high-quality, coordinated care at a reasonable cost.”

The Aetna-Commonwealth Health collaboration will offer consumers better health care options by:

Improving health care outcomes;
Offering a competitive and affordable plan that will save consumers money, and;
Developing co-branded commercial health care plans for businesses and consumers.

About Commonwealth Health

Commonwealth Health, the largest network of hospitals in Northeastern Pennsylvania, continues to combine vast medical resources to enhance the quality of patient care throughout the region. Patients will benefit from an extended physician network through recruitment of new physicians as well as the sharing of specialists throughout the system. Working together, the hospitals of Commonwealth Health will transform health care delivery in Northeastern Pennsylvania through formalized centers of excellence and through the sharing of best practices that meet nationally recognized standards for quality, safety and patient satisfaction.

Collectively, the hospitals of Commonwealth Health have earned significant recognition for clinical care, including HealthGrades awards and honors from U.S. News & World Report, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, and designation as one of the first Epicenters for Robotic General Surgery in the country. Each hospital brings unique resources to the community it serves.

The health network includes 1,600 physicians, 6,500 employees, and more than 1,300 beds, and has touched the lives of nearly two million patients in its first year. Commonwealth Health hospitals hold the leading market share in their primary service areas, making the system the number one choice for care in Northeastern Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.commonwealthhealth.net

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 46.3 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, 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. @AetnaNews