Aetna Supports 2005 Open Enrollment with New Member Tools And Tutorials.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- -- Offerings Promote Health Benefits Literacy by Making It Simple and Easy to Understand Options and Make Well-Informed Decisions --

Aetna (NYSE:AET) announced today that it is introducing new, easy-to-use tools and tutorials to help its members better understand their health benefits options and make well-informed decisions during open enrollment season. Four new interactive, online offerings are now available to help members compare the available plan offerings and determine those that best meet the needs of their family and their budget, educate members about Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and provide estimates for potential long-term savings in an HSA.

"Millions of Americans are currently making health benefits choices that will impact them throughout 2005. We want to be sure that Aetna members know all of their options, understand how the true costs of the services they use may impact their expenses, and make a well-informed decision about the health plan that best suits their needs," said Robin Downey, head of product development, Aetna. "In light of the increase in popularity of consumer-directed plans it's particularly important to understand all of the options since, in many cases, these may be brand new choices to consider."

The new tools and tutorials support the Aetna HealthFund family of consumer-directed products and Aetna members as they gain more experience as health care consumers. They include:

--The Aetna HealthFund Plan Selection and Cost Estimator Tool. Using this tool, members provide basic information about their utilization of health care services to estimate their out-of-pocket health care costs, compare available plan offerings and understand the costs associated with various health care scenarios. The online tool can compare up to five Aetna plans (one of which must be an Aetna HealthFund product). For some employer groups the tool can also compare a plan offering from another insurer, such as a spouse's coverage.

--The Aetna HealthFund HSA Savings Calculation Tool. This tool demonstrates the potential savings and tax advantages associated with an HSA, helping members better plan for their HSA contributions. Users input basic information about their age, annual HSA contribution, expected rate of return and marginal tax rate. The calculator provides the potential HSA balance, a comparison of HSA savings to other after-tax interest-bearing savings vehicles, and the potential tax savings for HSA contributions.

--The Aetna HealthFund HRA and HSA Tutorials. These simple, animated, educational courses help members better understand these accounts, which may be new to many consumers. Each tutorial can be completed in approximately 30 minutes, helping members to understand the reasons behind the rise in health care consumerism, the benefits available through HRAs and HSAs, the basic structure of the benefits plans, and the tools and resources that support these new offerings.

As the movement towards health care consumerism gains momentum it is clear that consumers are seeking more education to support informed decision-making. In a recent survey conducted by Aetna and the Financial Planning Association, more than half of women (54 percent) said they have some difficulty choosing a health benefits plan. These challenges include dealing with "confusing or hard to understand" information (19 percent), and determining what type of plan will meet personal and family health care needs in the year ahead (16 percent). In addition, 93 percent of respondents indicated that they would be interested in a health insurance plan that makes it easy to access credible information and tools to help make health benefits decisions.(1)

The new tools and tutorials are available free of charge to employer groups who offer either an Aetna HealthFund HRA or integrated Aetna HealthFund HSA product. They are accessible via a web address which employers can link their employees to or feature on their internal websites, or for some employer groups through the Aetna Navigator secure member site.

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)

(1) All survey data refers to women ages 24-44 with health insurance.