U.S. health insurer, Aetna Inc. (AET) has tied up with Welvie, a company providing support in making decision regarding surgeries.
With Welvie, Aetna will be able to provide its members a solution named “Welvie Surgery Decision Support Program”. This service will enable Aetna members to make better choices with regard to health care. It will also provide them other options of care, so that they may avoid unnecessary surgeries.
The program will be available online via Aetna Navigator, which can only be accessed by Aetna’s members. This customer friendly program gives detailed information on how to choose the best method of care In case surgery is the only course of treatment available, it helps the patients to prepare for the process and offers tips for recovery. The program provides information on approximately 60 medical processes. The program is also available in an enhanced version, which provides greater information on medical procedures.
The initiative met with initial success as more than 90% of the users approved the various services and information provided by the program.
The newly-launched service reflects Aetna’s concerted efforts toward serving its members in terms of medical management capabilities.It is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.4 million people with information and resources to help them make informed decisions about their health care.
Aetna’s focus to serve its members has led to the introduction of new products over the last five years. Some of these include Aetna One, a suite of integrated products for disease management and prevention, wellness and health promotion, and health, disability and absence assessments, all intended to improve member health and productivity and lower medical and other benefit cost trends over time; Personal Health Record, which provides members with online access to personal health information to help them choose their health care options wisely; Aetna Health Connections, an integrated disease management program and Aetna Vision Preferred, which provides members with access to one of the largest vision networks in the U.S.
Aetna also continues to expand its initiative to improve the transparency of its products and pricing by utilizing Aetna Navigator, an online tool to offer its members access to physician-specific cost, clinical quality and efficiency information.
Peer UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) also offers its consumers engaging and informative tools and resources that provide greater transparency, in terms of quality and cost. Its Premium Designation program and Treatment Cost Estimator tool enables its members to gain more control over their health care options.
Aetna currently retains a Zacks # 3 Rank, which translates into a short-term ‘Hold’ rating. Considering its better-than-average fundamentals, we are maintaining our long-term “Outperform” recommendation on the shares.
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