Aetna and Virtua Create Product-Based Accountable Care Organization for South Jersey

MARLTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Aetna AET and Virtua Health, the largest health care provider in South Jersey, announced that they will collaborate in a new Accountable Care Organization (ACO) aimed at improving the quality of patient care, creating new choices for consumers, and lowering overall health care costs.

Virtua Physician Partners, a clinically integrated network of community physicians affiliated with Virtua, will drive efforts to optimize efficiency, coordinate care, and improve communication with patients and providers.

The Aetna/Virtua collaboration will provide consumers with better health care options by:

• developing co-branded commercial health care plans for businesses and consumers;
• offering a competitive and affordable plan that will save consumers money, and;
• improving health care outcomes.

The Aetna Whole Health-Virtua plan will be introduced in South Jersey later this year, and will use Virtua's community-based health system of hospitals, outpatient facilities, urgent care centers, and health and wellness centers supported by the Virtua Physician Partners network of community physicians.

"We are very pleased to introduce this agreement with Aetna and develop a shared vision of health care," said Virtua President and CEO Richard P. Miller. "This collaboration will offer value-based care in the South Jersey region that reflects Virtua's standards for quality and affordability."

"Aetna is working to produce more healthy days for its members," said Michael Costa, executive director for Aetna's New Jersey market. "We're moving toward new arrangements that reward hospitals and doctors for providing better, more efficient care, rather than simply more care. We're excited to announce this collaboration with Virtua."

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 46.5 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @AetnaNews

About Virtua
As one of New Jersey's largest health systems, Virtua helps people be well, get well and stay well through a comprehensive range of health care services. Services are delivered through three health and wellness centers, two ambulatory care centers, three fitness centers, three acute care hospitals, primary and specialty physician practices with 287 physicians plus 87 additional practitioners, urgent care centers, 11 ambulatory surgery centers, home health services, two long-term care and rehabilitation centers, 12 paramedic units and a wide range of outpatient services. A leader in maternal and child health services, Virtua delivers more than 8,000 babies a year. Virtua also provides employment and wellness services to 1,700 businesses and corporations. An innovator in clinical and information technology such as electronic medical records, Virtua is recognized for its ground-breaking partnerships with GE Healthcare, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Penn Medicine. Virtua employs more than 8,700 people and has been honored as the #1 Best Place to Work in the Delaware Valley every year since 2007. It is the recipient of the Consumer Choice Award from the National Research Corporation. For more information, visit www.virtua.org or www.virtuabroadcastnetwork.org.

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