Aetna Awarded a Medicare Chronic Care Improvement Program for Metro Chicago.

WASHINGTON -- Aetna (NYSE:AET) announced today that it has been awarded a Medicare Chronic Care Improvement Program (CCIP) for metro Chicago, representing approximately 20,000 Medicare beneficiaries in seven counties in the state of Illinois. Administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the pilot program will allow the company to apply the beneficial features of its care management services to traditional fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with certain chronic conditions. The initiative is designed to help improve health outcomes for these Medicare beneficiaries, reduce medical costs, and improve participant and medical provider satisfaction levels.

"Aetna has a strong track record of effecting significant quality-of-care improvements and cost savings as a result of our award-winning disease management programs," said Aetna President Ronald A. Williams. "We believe that both the quality improvements and savings will translate well to the Medicare fee-for-service environment, and demonstrate tangible improvements for those beneficiaries who are not enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.

"We look forward to demonstrating the positive impact of this pilot and believe that this meaningful program can help shape the future of Medicare."

Program implementation will begin in spring 2005. The care management model designed by Aetna will address the specific needs associated with the management of diabetes and chronic heart failure, as well as other individual medical conditions, psychosocial barriers and end-of-life care needs in a manner that is sensitive to the individual's racial and ethnic background.

Participation in the CCIP program is voluntary, and all services will be provided to participants at no charge. Additionally, the program does not change access to their traditional fee-for-service Medicare benefits.

Aetna is required to guarantee savings of at least five percent. The company also will be accountable for clinical and satisfaction improvement. The results of the care management pilot will be judged against a clinically matched control group of 20,000 traditional fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, who will not receive these additional care management services.

According to Michael J. Reardon, M.D., head of Aetna's Member Advantage Programs, Aetna views this program as a forum that will produce legitimate and defensible research findings. "We believe it will deliver sufficient data due to its size, scope and consistent application of disease management interventions. We expect that it will ultimately lead to improvements in the quality of care and quality of life of Medicare patients who suffer with chronic disease," Reardon said.

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)