Aetna Expands Access to Performance Network.

-- Company to Expand Aexcel to Four New Sites in 2008: Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Delaware --

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Aetna (NYSE:AET) announced today the geographical expansion of its performance network featuring Aexcel-designated specialist physicians. Effective January 1, 2008, Aexcel will be available in four new locations - Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Delaware. Aetna's performance network featuring Aexcel is one in a series of industry-leading initiatives Aetna introduced to help mitigate rising medical costs, maintain access to quality health care and help consumers make informed decisions.

"We are very pleased that our performance network will serve a larger portion of our membership," said Donald Storey, M.D., Aetna's senior medical director for Aexcel. "We look forward to making Aexcel available to even more members - who through the network will now have access to information about specialists' care - and encouraging them to become active participants in their health care by choosing Aexcel-designated specialists."

Aexcel-designated specialists are the centerpiece of Aetna's Performance Network, a network of specialty physicians that also includes Aetna participating primary care providers, hospitals and physicians in non-Aexcel specialties. Aetna applies Aexcel designation to certain specialists who, in addition to being part of Aetna's network, meet certain thresholds for clinical performance and cost efficiency. Doctors within 12 specialties were evaluated using measures of clinical performance and efficiency in their use of health care resources. Aetna worked closely with a number of large employers to develop Aexcel, and interest continues to build. Aexcel currently is available in 31 markets.

"Our evaluation process assesses the performance of the participating specialists in Aexcel specialties, including those who are currently designated, in each Aexcel market at least every two years if not annually," Storey said. "This allows us to provide our members with up-to-date information to help them make the better informed decisions about their health care."

The information available through the Aexcel network also provides the base for Aetna's transparency efforts, which provide online access to physician-specific cost, clinical quality and efficiency information in select markets, making it possible for consumers to make more informed health care decisions based on overall value.

The specialties included in Aexcel are cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, gastroenterology, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, neurology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, vascular surgery and urology.

Aexcel currently is available in Atlanta, Georgia; Arizona; Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Texas; Northern California; Central Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego, California; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Connecticut; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; South Florida; Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando, Florida; Maine; Metropolitan DC (Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia), Metropolitan New York; Northern New Jersey; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Richmond, Virginia and Seattle, Washington.

Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 34.9 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life, long-term care and disability plans, and medical management capabilities. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans and government-sponsored plans. www.aetna.com