News Releases

COLUMBIA, Mo., June 19, 2009 — (News release revised July 28, 2009)  Missouri Care Health Plan has been notified that the state of Missouri’s MO HealthNet Division  awarded a MO HealthNet Managed Care contract to Missouri Care, an Aetna health plan, in Central, Eastern and Western regions of Missouri. This new contract renews and expands the state’s current contract with Missouri Care.

For the past 11 years, Missouri Care has provided health care coverage in Central Missouri for MO HealthNet health care programs that include MO HealthNet for Kids, MO HealthNet for Pregnant Women, MO HealthNet for Families, MO HealthNet for children in the care and custody of the state of Missouri, and to those children eligible for coverage under Missouri’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Missouri Care currently has a network of more than 3,600 providers and 27 hospitals serving members in 28 mid-Missouri counties. Upon initiation of the new contract, to begin October 2009, Missouri Care will offer coverage in an additional 13 counties in the Eastern Region (including St. Louis) and 13 counties in the Western Region (including Kansas City) with an expanded provider network. The expanded network includes more than 2,620 providers, 23 hospitals and 53 clinics which will include safety-net providers, such as Federally Qualified Rural Health Centers.
 
“We are excited to continue our long-term commitment to Missouri and expand our outreach to other areas of the state,” said Pamela Johnson, executive director for Missouri Care an Aetna health plan. “Our priority is to provide access to quality care for members and to help establish health care homes. We will continue to work with providers to implement programs that improve the quality of care for healthy outcomes.”

Aetna Medicaid owns and administers programs that serve approximately 1.3 million Medicaid members in 12 states.

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 37.2 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates.  For more information, see www.aetna.com and Aetna's Annual Report at www.aetna.com/2008annualreport.