Aetna NC CEO: You shouldn’t worry about the change in the state health plan | Opinion [The Charlotte Observer]

Charlotte Observer (NC)

Beginning in 2025 — two years from now — Aetna, the health insurance company I lead for North Carolina, will administer the state health plan for teachers, state employees and their dependents.

As a native North Carolinian based here in Aetna’s Triangle market headquarters, I’m of course filled with pride at the opportunity for our company to deliver health benefits to the people who teach, protect, and serve North Carolina.

Public service is always demanding, but in recent years teachers and state employees dealt with the unimaginable challenge of a global pandemic. They performed their duties with grace and resilience under immense pressure. North Carolina’s public employees deserve a health benefits administrator that leads with customer service, quality care and affordability, and Aetna intends to deliver it to them.

I’m fully aware that a change in the company that administers the state health plan might induce some level of concern among members. That is, after all, a natural byproduct of any change.

Aetna will begin administering the state health plan on Jan. 1, 2025. Over the next two years, we will embark on an extensive outreach campaign to communicate with the members whose health benefits needs will be entrusted to our company.

My sole mission — along with the hundreds of North Carolina-based Aetna employees dedicated to this invaluable relationship — is to make this transition seamless for members of the state health plan.

Every hospital in North Carolina is part of Aetna’s extensive statewide provider network, but I expect the question at the front of most minds is: How will the change impact my relationship with my doctor?

Our team analyzed millions of provider claims processed over a full year by the current state health plan administrator, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBS), and matched them to Aetna’s provider network.

The result? More than 98% of BCBS claims came from providers currently in Aetna’s network. Still, that doesn’t satisfy me. State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced the contract decision on Jan. 3. On Jan. 4, we began communicating with additional N.C. providers to expand Aetna’s network even further. We will continue to work to bring more providers into the network that can offer the high-quality care that state employees deserve.

We’re present in communities from the mountains to the coast, not only as another provider but also a community partner. Just last month Aetna announced a $16 million affordable housing community in the heart of downtown Charlotte — the fourth such announcement in North Carolina in the last six months.

Though we’re excited about this new opportunity to serve states employees and teachers, administering health benefits is not new to us. We began doing business in North Carolina in 1899, more than 120 years ago. We hold a long-term view on value, relationships and service. And that will be true on Jan. 1, 2025, when we formally assume health benefits responsibility for North Carolina’s finest teachers and employees.