Aetna, HSC Pediatric Center Sign Agreement.

LARGO, Md. -- Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today that it has signed a five-year agreement with the HSC Pediatric Center, a rehabilitation and transitional care facility in Northeast Washington, D.C.

Under the new contract, Aetna's Washington, D.C.-area members will be able to access the HSC Pediatric Center for covered in-patient and out-patient services, at in-network rates.

"Aetna's goal is to provide its members with access to a broad network of hospitals and physicians," said Bill Stout, Aetna's head of network operations for Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. "With the addition of the HSC Pediatric Center, Aetna now has agreements with all of the acute care and rehabilitation hospitals in the District of Columbia."

Aetna has approximately 64,000 health plan members in Washington, D.C. Those members have access to a network of 41 hospitals, 303 primary care physicians and 1,864 specialists.

"The HSC Pediatric Center is pleased to include Aetna health plan members among the population we serve," said HSC Chief Operating Officer Deborah T. Zients. "We look forward to a productive and mutually beneficial relationship as we provide high-quality rehabilitation and transitional services to Aetna's members in the years ahead."

The HSC Pediatric Center (HSC) is dedicated exclusively to providing rehabilitation and transitional care to children and adolescents from infancy through 21 years of age. The non-profit hospital is one of only 20 facilities nationwide to offer such services.

The HSC Pediatric Center is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization (JCAHO) and CARF (The Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission).

As one of the nation's leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for its approximately 13.6 million medical members, 11.6 million dental members, 8.3 million pharmacy members and 13.3 million group insurance members to help them make better informed decisions about their health care and protect their finances against health-related risks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 646,000 health care professionals, including over 385,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 3,908 hospitals. For more information, please visit www.aetna.com. (Figures as of September 30, 2004)