"Aetna has been at the forefront of the consumer-directed movement, so we’re very encouraged to see that health care consumerism can be a positive force in the health care marketplace," said Aetna President Ronald A. Williams. "Health care consumerism is about putting more of the decisions in the hands of the consumer, and providing them with useful tools and information that allow them to make decisions more comfortably. These early results indicate to us that consumers can and will responsibly manage their own discretionary health care spending, while continuing to seek the care that they need."

Aetna plans to continue to research the impact of health care consumerism over time, including taking a closer look at utilization patterns and the health status of Aetna HealthFund members. This study included employees from 19 different employers, and compared 9 months (January through September) of 2003 claims and utilization data, to 9 months of experience for the same group of members in 2002 (prior to their joining Aetna HealthFund). For comparison purposes, the members were also benchmarked against similar populations (based on demographics, product, health status and geography). Risk-adjusted modeling techniques that reviewed demographic, clinical and severity of illness population characteristics were used to validate conclusions.

Key study and survey findings show that:

• Aetna HealthFund members are seeking increased preventive care.
• Preventive care office visits increased by 30.1 percent -- including increases in the number of routine physicals for both adults and children, as well as gynecological exams -- compared to a 14 percent increase for a similar population
• Aetna HealthFund appears to be effectively controlling health care costs.
• Members experienced a 1.5 percent medical cost increase, compared to double digit increases for a similar population
• Aetna HealthFund is helping to control pharmacy costs and encouraging the usage of generic medications.
• Members experienced a 6.5 percent decrease in pharmacy costs driven by an 11 percent decline in overall prescriptions and a 12.8 percent increase in overall generic utilization
• Aetna HealthFund members are taking greater advantage of consumer tools and information.
• Members log on to Aetna Navigator™, Aetna’s online suite of consumer tools and information, 11 percent more often
• Members utilize DocFind®, Aetna’s online physician directory, 13 percent more often
• Members access Aetna InteliHealth^SM, Aetna’s consumer health information website, 48 percent more often
• Members utilize the Healthwise Knowledgebase®, an innovative decision-support tool that enables members to understand and make decisions about their health care treatment options; the online formulary, a searchable database of covered medications; and Price-a-Drug^SM, which provides cost information on prescription drugs and determines if a less costly generic alternative is available, twice as often
• Aetna HealthFund members are rolling over fund dollars from year-to-year.
• More than half of Aetna HealthFund members had fund dollars left to roll over into 2004
• On average, those members rolled over 31 percent of their fund
• Aetna HealthFund members are satisfied with the plan.
• Nine out of ten members said that Aetna HealthFund met their expectations
• Nine out of ten members said that they are likely to renew their Aetna HealthFund coverage
• Higher satisfaction rates were found among those with six months or more experience who had more opportunity to use the plan

"These results provide further evidence that consumer-directed plans are moving us in the right direction by controlling costs, and encouraging consumer engagement," said Greg Scandlen, director of the Galen Institute’s Center for Consumer Driven Health Care. "I applaud Aetna’s efforts to gauge the results of health care consumerism, share these preliminary results, and continue the research over longer periods of time."

Beyond reviewing medical claims and utilization data, Aetna looked at a variety of additional information in order to get a clearer picture of the impact of Aetna HealthFund. This included a member satisfaction survey, a comparison of online tool usage among employees at large employers with Aetna HealthFund members, and a review of nine months of pharmacy data.

Aetna first launched a self-insured Aetna HealthFund product in September 2001 for large national employers. In July 2002 the product family was expanded with a fully insured product for employers with as few as 51 eligible employees. Additional product enhancements have included a fully integrated pharmacy benefit launched in January of 2003, and a stand-alone pharmacy product, integrated and stand-alone dental products, and a long-term care premium reimbursement program added in July of 2003. In December of 2003 Aetna was the first insurer to announce the offering of a Health Savings Account (HSA) product as part of its consumer-directed product family.

The Aetna HealthFund family of products leverages Aetna’s unique resources, including one of the largest networks of physicians, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies and health professionals; its extensive experience in claims payment and administration of innovative health benefits; and the company’s powerful online resources and self-service tools.

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, serving approximately 13.0 million medical members, 10.9 million dental members, 7.4 million pharmacy members and 12.3 million group insurance customers, as of December 31, 2003. The company has expansive nationwide networks of more than 600,000 health care services providers, including over 362,000 primary care and specialist physicians and 3,626 hospitals. For more information about Aetna, please visit the company’s web site at www.aetna.com.