The Impact Of Aetna On Health Care

The merger is totaled at $69 billion dollars, with CVS being a substantial drugstore chain and prescription drug provider and Aetna existing as one of the U.S.’s largest health insurers. “It’s a vertical merger—meaning CVS and Aetna don’t compete on much, so it’s about synergies from integration rather than getting rid of a competitor—so [it] shouldn’t affect Aetna’s health-insured much, other than perhaps cheaper scripts or [over the counter] treatments bought at CVS,” says Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. If approved, this deal will be the largest acquisition ever in the health industry. A problem for Aetna in the past has been that they only control the money coming in to the insurance industry. They never had control over the cost of the drugs being provided. This merger allows CVS to guarantee Aetna control over those costs, while Aetna provides CVS with needed customer flow. George Hill, a health care technology & distribution analyst with RBC Capital Markets, says that health pharmacies and providers like CVS and Aetna are continually looking for ways to make access to medication and care easier. According to Mr. Hill, this merger will provide a viable road to achieving that. Michael Newshell, an analyst who covers Aetna, says that there will be little change for consumers in the short run. “Ultimately, [the]

Aetna Medicare Plan (PPO) offers advantages such as comprehensive annual examination and fitness facility membership at without a cost, according to Aetna. It also offers in-network coverage regardless of where a member travels to.

Aetna is one of the nation's driving differentiated health care benefits companies, serving an evaluated 46.7 million individuals. Aetna offer a wide extend health insurance products and services including medical, drug store, dental, behavioral wellbeing, group life and disability plans.

The company’s Health Plan and Medical Services division provides health plan commercial risk, commercial management services, Medicare advantage coordinated care plans, and Medicaid products. It also offers commercial risk products, including health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, and point of service products to individuals and employer groups. In addition, this segment provides health insurance benefits under the federal employees health benefits program; administrative services only products, such as medical claims administration, pharmacy benefits management, and utilization management and quality assurance programs; consumer-directed benefit options comprising health reimbursement accounts and health savings accounts to commercial customers; and comprehensive health benefits on a risk basis to members participating in the Medicare Advantage Coordinated Care Plans and Medicaid programs. Its Specialized Managed Care includes Medicare Part D program that provides access to prescription drug coverage for eligible beneficiaries; network rental business that offers network rental services through a national PPO network to national, regional, and local third-party administrators, as well as insurance carriers; and behavioral health benefits business provides coordination of comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment services. The company’s Workers’ Compensation division offers managed care services, such as

American Well is a leader in telehealth technology in the United States. American Well was founded by two brothers; Drs. Ido and Roy Schoenberg in 2006. The company is located in Boston, Massachusetts and provides telehealth services to over 100 million people in 46 states and the District of Columbia (Mohney, 2016). American Well provides software, services, and access to clinical services to health plans, insurance companies, employers, and delivery networks (American Well, 2016). The company has developed mobile and web health care services that connects patients to providers through live and on-demand video conferencing. American Well is a well-established and respected brand in the telehealth market domain.

Elana experienced an especially confusing situation. She was insured by the recently collapsed Health Republic through her previous employer. After the collapse of health Republic

Technological advances are intertwine in both areas. Aetna software has been remanufacture more simple and easier for consumers to navigate. They want to have policy information available twenty-four hours and become the leading company in healthcare technology. This will be available in all media devices and work in real-time. Aetna understands that technology is so important that they gave $4.5 million grants to poor minority populations to have digital health technology available for healthier and more active citizens (Kern). In addition, their corporate brand has become popular due to the many areas that Aetna portfolio has grown. They have various individual plans and employee bundles. Aetna brand awareness has risen due to the many accomplishments and years Aetna has been in business. They strive to network with the best providers to give the best quality of healthcare services. With the purchase of InterGlobal in Singapore and Aetna, rebrand within their company expects to improve Aetna brand recognitions, especially in Asia where InterGlobal has a strong relationship (Stefan). Increasing employee rate has even increase its popularity more. Aetna wants to attract and retain their best employees to meet the needs and wants of a consumer individualistic consumer.

The original company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut, named Aetna Fire Insurance Company. The name was inspired by an 11,000-foot volcano, which was the most active volcano in Europe. The corporation was later renamed in 1850, as Aetna Life Insurance

Humana, Inc. is a health insurance company from Louisville, Kentucky that started in 1961 by Lawyers Wendell Cherry and David A. Jones, Sr. Humana started as a nursing home where it later become the largest nursing home company in the nation. After the nursing homes they soon began to purchase hospitals entirely for expansion. The name of the company changed to Humana, Inc. two years later. Cherry and Jones continued to expand by purchasing other companies. In 1984, the company began focusing on Health Insurance where it remains to focus on even today. Since 2014, Humana has had over 13 million customers and over 52,000, and a revenue of $41.3 billion that was reported in 2013.

As a leading insurance company, Aetna’s primary market broadens to reach those who work full time or part time based on hourly wages through its subsidiary company, Strategic Resource Company (SRC) which was bought by Aetna, Inc in 2005 (SRC: Our Mission, 2012). Aetna’s fourth subdivision target market, which is considered the biggest subdivision, is providing insurance to “employers, third-party administrators, commercial insurance companies and other health plans (Aetna Subsidiaries, 2012)”. These latter targets are aimed at through Aetna’s fourth subsidiary Cofinity which includes over 2.5 million members as of 2009 (About Cofinity, 2009). Besides targeting health insurance consumers, Aetna aimed at a target market that excludes health insurance seekers yet includes health care providers. Through a fifth subsidiary, Medicity, Aetna created another target market subdivision where it can provide health information technology in health care facilities such as hospitals and practices (About Medicity, 2012). Finally, Aetna aims at acquiring shareholders and therefore targeted a market of

Even the name of Aetna has an interesting origin. In it’s genesis in the early 1800’s, it started out as a fire insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut. At that time Europe’s most active volcano was named Mount Etna, and Aetna wanted to make a play on words with that for their fire insurance company. Henry Leavit Elsworth was it’s most prominent president during this first phase, taking office in 1819.

WellPoint is considered one of the leading commercial health benefits companies in the United States. WellPoint is a health benefits company engaged in providing managed care and health insurance products. The company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA). It is licensed conduct insurance operations in all 50 states of the US through its subsidiaries. WellPoint covers more than 34.8 million people and focus’s on improving the lives of the people and the health of its communities through its healthcare services. WellPoint offers a wide range of network-based managed care plans to the small and large employer, individual, Medicaid and senior markets. In addition, the company offers a

This was recognized as a factor that observed most insurers cut off the number of covered employers while paying up the consumers. In fact, recent times have seen a gradual increase in the medical costs and expenditure on healthcare services. With an increased cost of healthcare and a decreased number of uninsured individuals, the healthcare insurance industry has begun to thrive. It has experienced an increase in the number of insurance firms, while a decrease in the market concentration (Cole, He, & Karl, 2014). In addition, the industry appreciates the increased premium rates and acknowledges the increased insurance penetration, especially among the aging population. Currently, the health insurance market is facing a threat of restrictive regulatory practices which seek to reduce the profit margins of the company. However, the aging population and a rise of a median population that is attentive on medical insurance offers a great opportunity for expansion. The success of a firm in this field has been characterized by having a reputable image, a well-established distribution linkage and a capacity to delegate cost rises to the consumer (Santerre, & Neun,

Managed care transformed the health industry. Companies that were most successful in offering managed care products, especially HMOs, were those that had started up as local or regional HMOs. Traditional insurers tended not to be good at this, and one (Aetna) later acquired a large regional HMO (U.S. HealthCare) and put the HMO executives in charge of the entire operation (Lesser, 2007). United HealthCare, which started as an HMO company, later acquired a large traditional insurer to expand its reach. Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) plans lost market share to other insurers, although they continued to be dominant insurers in many markets (Lesser, 2007).

Porter’s Five Forces Framework considers other factors. This model identifies and analyzes five competitive factors that shape and help determine an industry’s strengths and weaknesses. These factors include competition in the industry, new entrants into the industry, threat of substitutes, buyers and suppliers. Porter’s model is applicable in any segment of the economy to search for profitability or attractiveness. In addition, theses five forces are considered items that may affect a company’s ability to serve