Dive Brief:
- Aetna, which left the Colorado small-group market in 2010 and then left the state's individual market in 2011, has since remained only in the large-group market--until now.
- Aetna vice president of sales and service for Colorado, Marc Nealy, told the Denver Business Journal the company has found a small-group product with which it can be competitive.
- While the company is also “evaluating the individual market,” it is not currently planning to re-enter that market in Colorado.
Dive Insight:
Aetna is counting on attracting a healthy population and on appealing to business leaders with a cost-cutting product that aims to improve on the 9% premium increases small businesses have been faced with in recent years, the Journal reports.
To reach its goal, Aetna Whole Health utilizes a network of primary-care physicians to work with enrollees to reduce healthcare spending, and then shares some of that savings with the physicians.
Aetna says it has tested the product in other markets and determined that it cut ED usage and unnecessary hospitalizations, two major contributors to high healthcare costs.
Aetna recently announced it will no longer offer subsidized benefits in Utah, Kansas, and D.C in 2016. The insurer plans on adding Kentucky in 2016 so that the company will be in 15 states.