Aetna to End HMO Services in Parts of State
Aetna Inc. announced yesterday that it will drop HMO services in all or part of 13 California counties -- a move designed to increase profitability by "paring down membership," Reuters/Los Angeles Times reports. The company has notified the Department of Managed Health Care that beginning on or after Jan. 1, it will withdraw its HMO products from 11 counties in the Central Valley -- Napa, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tuolumne and Tulare -- as well as from 12 ZIP codes in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The move will affect about 44,000 of Aetna's 1.8 million California members. Speaking to investors at a Chicago conference, Aetna Chief of Health Operations Ronald Williams said, "We don't believe the medical cost structure we have for reimbursing providers in those counties supports the profitability objective we have" (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 6/13).
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