Will Aetna (AET) Gain from ACO with Hartford HealthCare?
U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc. (AET) announced the formation of another accountable care organization (:ACO) with Hartford HealthCare (HHC). Both the companies will provide new arrangements in Connecticut beginning Jan 2015, while the new accountable care products will be introduced in 2016.
An ACO is a voluntary collaboration of healthcare providers offering coordinated high-quality care to patients. Such an organization is accountable for the quality, cost and overall care offered to members.
Hartford HealthCare’s Integrated Care Partners (ICP.TO), a physician-led clinical integration organization, will play an important role in enhancing the delivery of patient care through the new ACO.
As a result of this alliance, Hartford HealthCare’s 2,000 ICP doctors, healthcare professionals and care managers will provide healthcare services to Aetna’s members, focusing on high-quality yet economic medical care.
This agreement also boosts the existing partnership between Aetna, Hartford HealthCare and ICP. All of these three organizations are continuously exchanging data to identify, enroll and help people suffering from chronic diseases like diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (:COPD). They also aim to improve care coordination in one of the acute-care five hospitals in the HHC system from where employees will be discharged.
The new ACO from Aetna emphasizes on expanding its new provider model, accountable care solution that intends to provide improved yet affordable standards of safety and quality in patient care.
Aetna has been forming ACOs in order to improve the quality of care offered to patients. Earlier this month, it formed an ACO with Weill Cornell Physicians and Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance in North Texas. It also launched the Aetna Whole Health product in the same region.
Currently, Aetna holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Other health insurers like UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), Cigna Corp. (CI) and Humana Inc. (HUM) are also aggressively forming ACOs.
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