Aetna To Expand Number of Disease Management Programs Offered
Aetna officials on Wednesday announced plans to expand the number of disease management programs offered by the company from six to 30, the Hartford Courant reports. Aetna currently offers disease management programs for asthma, chronic heart failure, coronary artery disease, diabetes, end-stage renal disease and lower back pain. Under the expansion, Aetna will begin to offer disease management programs for conditions such as cancer, HIV, hypertension, migraines, peptic ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, sickle cell disease and stroke. Aetna will group the disease management programs into categories such as pulmonary, orthopedic, oncology, "neuro" and gastrointestinal under the name Aetna Health Connections. LifeMasters will continue to manage the diabetes and chronic heart failure disease management programs for some Aetna members, and Aetna will manage the other programs. According to Aetna, nurses and physicians will use technology from ActiveHealth Management, which Aetna recently acquired, to identify members for the disease management programs and categorize them by health risk. In addition, the Aetna MedQuery program, which examines claims information for potential errors or omissions in patient care, will identify employees at companies that subscribe to Aetna Health Connections for the disease management programs (Levick, Hartford Courant, 4/6).
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