Aetna launches insurance plan with CVS Health for 2021
Aetna, the insurance giant nestled under drugstore giant CVS Health’s umbrella of health care businesses, is offering a new insurance plan for the 2021 enrollment year that would direct consumers to the menu of offerings owned by CVS.
Called the “Aetna Connected Plan with CVS Health,” the policy would help people manage chronic conditions through CVS HealthHUBs, the combination of its walk-in MinuteClinics and health centers, located in-store. It also offers in-network access to doctors and prescriptionmedication that are part of the greater Aetna network.
Care at HealthHUBs and MinuteClinics would come without co-pays, according to Aetna. The plan also offers a 24/7 pharmacist hotline, free one-to-two day prescription delivery and 20 percent discounts on some of CVS’ drugstore offerings.
The plan first launched in Kansas City and moved to Texas, said Kristen Miranda, president of Aetna’s west/south central division. It offers in-network access at more than 100 hospitals in the Houston area, including Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist, CHI St. Luke’s, MD Anderson and HCA Houston Healthcare affiliates.
Small employers in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley are eligible to enroll.
Company officials said the plan would offer up to 10 percent premium savings from competitors.
“We are looking to create a consumer-centric model,” Miran
da said. “One that delivers a broader array of lower priced options.”
CVS, based inWoonsocket, R.I., made broad leaps into the health care space in the 2000s, adding MinuteClinics in 2006, the retailbased doctor’s office where customers could come in to check out short-term sicknesses like the flu, and acquiring Caremark in 2007, which negotiates drug prices with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of insurers.
In 2018, CVS got into the insurance game by adding Aetna to its portfolio for $69 billion. Since March, it’s offered COVID-19 testing at 4,000 retail stores across the country, including 66 in the Houston area.
“It’s got the potential to be a win-win,” said Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Patients would pay lower premiums, while the insurer could steer medical providers away from extra spending such as unnecessary diagnostic tests. At the same time, Ho said, Aetna has to earn the trust of consumers and prove to consumers that it won’t steer patients away frommore expensive treatments if they’re medically necessary.
Aetna joins two other insurers, Friday Health Plans and Baylor Scott and White Health, in launching new plans in Texas this fall.
“Texas is a really significant market just in terms of size and scale, and there is a lot of demographic diversity,” Miranda said.