Will Aetna Walk Its Talk?
Wednesday, September 30th, 2015No matter your age healthcare is/should be a serious concern.
If not for yourself then for your parents and others you care about.
And not just a new app that delivers services a different way, no matter how good.
What needs to change is the culture of not only insurance companies, but medical service providers (doctors, labs, testing, hospitals, etc.), other various and sundry vendors within the ecosystem, not to mention the government in the form of Medicare and Medicaid.
When you look at the deeply entrenched interests on that list the possibility of anything actually happening in the near-term seems remote, if at all.
Not even the proverbial 500 pound gorilla, think Google or Facebook, has the clout to even dent that crowd.
But what about Aetna Insurance under CEO Mark Bertolini, a 1000 pound gorilla and long-time global player in healthcare that has the clout, since it insures two thirds of the Fortune 100 and a great number of the 500?
…Bertolini called the sector “too bloated and accountable to no one.” The system — which will cost US$4.6 trillion, or 20 percent of U.S. GDP, by 2020 — “charges patients and rewards care providers on services delivered, not patient outcomes,”…
Aetna is taking a three prong approach that includes, paying for positive outcomes, as opposed to fees for services; changing corporate health offerings in order to tap into positive consumer behavior and eating its own dog food — as every good startup does.
The big question is whether Aetna will walk its talk.
Based on the comments it’s questionable.
Flickr image credit: Aetna