Aetna Signs Contract with Nashville's Saint Thomas and Baptist Hospitals.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today that it has signed a two-year agreement with Saint Thomas Hospital and Baptist Hospital, returning the two facilities to the company's Nashville-area managed care network. With the contract, Aetna now has agreements with all the major hospitals in the Nashville metropolitan area.

Under the agreement, which takes effect Jan. 1, members of Aetna's managed care plans in the Nashville area again will be able to receive covered services, at in-network rates, at Saint Thomas and Baptist hospitals. The hospitals each left the Aetna network in 2003.

The contract also includes Saint Thomas Outpatient Cardiac Catheterization Center; Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurological Center; Saint Thomas SurgiCare; and Baptist Plaza Surgery Center.

"It's extremely gratifying that we were able to reach an agreement and bring Saint Thomas and Baptist hospitals back into the Aetna network," said Tom Golias, Aetna's head of network operations for Tennessee. "We're proud to say that Aetna members now have access to every major hospital in the Nashville area, giving them the flexibility and choice that is so important to them."

In addition to the 35 hospitals, Aetna's Nashville-area network includes 904 primary care physicians and 2,023 specialists. Aetna provides health benefits to more than 170,000 members in Tennessee.

"Our agreement with Aetna is good news for our patients and physicians," said Thomas E. Beeman, president and chief executive officer of Saint Thomas Health Services. "We know that there are many Aetna-covered patients who want to receive their care at Baptist Hospital, Saint Thomas Hospital or one of our affiliated specialty centers. This agreement offers them their choice in providers while staying in their managed care network."

Baptist Hospital and Saint Thomas Hospital are members of Saint Thomas Health Services, a faith-based ministry with 10,000 associates serving Middle Tennessee. Saint Thomas Health Services consists of five hospitals: Baptist and Saint Thomas Hospitals in Nashville; Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro; Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville; and DeKalb Hospital in Smithville.

Saint Thomas Health Services is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States.

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)