Aetna Issues First Prescription From New Mail-Order Pharmacy.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Aetna (NYSE:AET) today announced that its pharmacy mail service subsidiary, Aetna Rx Home Delivery(R), has begun mailing prescriptions from a brand-new mail-order pharmacy in Pompano Beach, Fla., launching a state-of-the-art operation that will more than triple the company's capacity to meet the growing needs of its customers.

Aetna's second mail-order pharmacy will be able to fill 20 million prescriptions annually and will employ more than 800 people in the Broward County region within the next three years. The pharmacy was built to accommodate the tremendous growth of Aetna Pharmacy Management, Aetna's pharmacy benefits management unit, and Aetna Rx Home Delivery, the health care benefits company's mail-order prescription delivery operation. The company's first mail-order facility outside of Kansas City, Mo., is running at near full capacity.

"The delivery of our first prescriptions from the new facility is a special milestone for us," said Eric Elliott, head of Aetna Pharmacy Management. "With the advent of the Medicare drug plan and the growth of our home delivery pharmacy, the start-up of the Florida pharmacy represents the continuation of Aetna's strategy for delivering world-class mail-order prescription service."

The pharmacy, housed in a 114,000-square-foot building in the Pompano Business Center, will be the regional headquarters for Aetna Rx Home Delivery's mail-order distribution operation and its national mail-order customer service call center. Additionally, the expanded capacity will help Aetna to support several new business initiatives, like the 2006 Medicare drug benefit expansion. In late September, Aetna was approved as a national provider of the new Medicare prescription drug plan.

Aetna has been actively recruiting and hiring for a variety of positions in the new pharmacy, including:

--order entry technicians

--physician call technicians

--member call technicians

--accounts receivable and billing technicians

--shipping and packing clerks

--automation repair technicians

--call center representatives

--telemarketing representatives

--pharmacists

"This new pharmacy is a first-rate operation, and we are very pleased and excited about it," said Aaron Crosson Sr., head of Aetna Rx Home Delivery. "With this new facility, we will be positioning ourselves to better serve our members and providers, while also providing a host of job opportunities for the region."

Mail-order business continues rapid expansion

Aetna launched its mail-order delivery business in February 2003, by purchasing a facility located in Kansas City from Eckerd Health Services. At the business launch, Aetna Rx Home Delivery was filling 67,000 prescriptions per month. The mail-order operation is now filling more than 600,000 prescriptions monthly, a nearly nine-fold increase.

The Pompano Beach site was chosen following a national search. Factors leading to the decision include the fact that Florida has four well-respected pharmaceutical schools that should serve to provide a pipeline of highly qualified and trained workers. In addition, Aetna has more than one million health members and more than 800,000 pharmacy benefit members in Florida and the proximity will help reduce shipping time to those members.

Second facility serving Aetna members in Florida in the past year

Aetna and Priority Healthcare Corp. announced last spring that their joint venture, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy, opened a 63,000-square-foot distribution center in Orlando, Fla., just west of Orlando International Airport. On October 26, 2005, Aetna then announced its intention to purchase Priority Healthcare's stake in the joint venture, which is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2006, pending federal antitrust regulatory approval.

The specialty pharmacy features a state-of-the-art compounding setting and an automated fulfillment system that provides efficient preparation and delivery of these specialty medications. The Orlando distribution center, which provides member support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by pharmacists, registered nurses and patient care coordinators, has been distributing specialty pharmaceuticals and biomedical therapies for the chronically ill since March of this year. Aetna Specialty Pharmacy will have approximately 280 employees in the new specialty pharmacy by year end.

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 14.65 million medical members, 13.03 million dental members, 9.34 million pharmacy members and 13.68 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 700,000 health care professionals, including over 418,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 4,231 hospitals. For more information, please visit. (Figures as of September 30, 2005)