Best Disease Management Program Award Given to Aetna's Health Outlook Program for CHF.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 2003

LifeMasters Collaborates with Aetna on this Award Winning CHF Program

Outcomes Include Shorter Lengths of Stay, Fewer ER Visits, Improved Compliance

The 2003 Best Disease Management Program award was presented Monday by the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) to Aetna's Healthy Outlook(R) Program for Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), a collaborative program between LifeMasters(R) Supported SelfCare(TM) and Aetna.

In a ceremony held Monday evening at the Disease Management Leadership Forum in Chicago, Aetna's Healthy Outlook CHF program received the award based on its demonstrated excellence in design, development, implementation and operation.

The Healthy Outlook Program helps more than 30,000 Aetna members with CHF to understand their symptoms, improve compliance with their care plan and increase communication with their physicians, so that potential problems are discovered earlier and addressed, helping to avoid preventable medical costs. LifeMasters also provides disease management services to Aetna's members with diabetes.

"We are extremely proud to be recognized with this award, which illustrates that together, LifeMasters and Aetna have created the best disease management program in the industry," said Christobel Selecky, LifeMasters' CEO and the new president-elect of the DMAA. "Both companies entered this relationship with a deep commitment to the collaborative process and a shared passion for excellence. We look forward to continuing our relationship and working together to help Aetna's members with CHF and diabetes achieve optimal health and an enhanced quality of life."

"Living with a chronic health condition is a difficult challenge facing millions of Americans," said William C. Popik, M.D., Aetna's Chief Medical Officer. "Well-planned disease management programs are starting to show significant value. Our own analysis has shown that members who fully participate in our CHF program for at least 6 months had significantly improved compliance with an appropriate treatment regime and lower medical costs. There were fewer ER admissions for heart failure related episodes, and those patients admitted to the hospital were there for shorter periods of time."

Since September 2001, the national, collaborative endeavor has focused on the following goals:

-- Improving member health and quality of life through individual

member support and coaching, resulting in behavioral change;

-- Reducing avoidable medical costs;

-- Reducing avoidable, high cost hospitalizations through

education, monitoring and facilitation of high impact

customized interventions;

-- Enhancing Aetna's overall patient care model;

-- Providing meaningful communication tools and support to

physicians who care for Aetna members with CHF; and

-- Promoting physician adherence with evidence-based clinical

guidelines.

Heart failure affects 4.9 million individuals in the U.S., at an annual cost of $20.2 billion. More than 70 percent of those dollars are spent on hospital and nursing-home care. Patients with CHF have three times as many visits to physicians, twice as many emergency department visits, and more than three times as many inpatient admissions.

An internal study by Aetna found members in the Healthy Outlook program had significantly shorter lengths of stay for hospital admissions for heart failure, significantly fewer heart failure related emergency department visits, and a significantly better compliance record than members who did not participate.

About LifeMasters Supported SelfCare

LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. provides disease-management programs that create interactive health partnerships among patients, physicians and payors. LifeMasters is fully accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to provide disease management services in each of five disease categories, including: diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. LifeMasters provides services to more than 275,000 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. LifeMasters programs improve quality of life for individuals with chronic illnesses, reduce chronic-disease costs for payors and provide decision-support tools for physicians.

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Irvine, California, LifeMasters manages individuals with chronic illness for some of the nation's leading health plans, employers and governmental organizations, including Aetna, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (Medicaid). More information about LifeMasters can be found at http://www.lifemasters.com or by calling 800-760-9261.