About Aetna Health

Aetna, Inc., the nation's third largest health insurer, has 32,500 employees and manages the healthcare of literally millions of Americans. It also is one the country's oldest insurance companies and was among the first to become involved in providing healthcare insurance to individuals and groups. If Aetna administers your health care program or if you're just interested in the company, Aetna has an interesting history and a seemingly bright future.

In his introduction to the company's 2008 Annual Report, Aetna chairman and CEO Ronald A. Williams wrote, "I am pleased to highlight Aetna's industry-leading performance in 2008, which came despite the turmoil caused by larger economic trends. We posted solid financial results, added nearly 850,000 new medical members and were active in the national discussion about transforming healthcare. "

Aetna Insurance Company

• In 1850, Aetna Insurance Company organized an annuity fund to sell life insurance. The company first entered the health insurance business in 1899 when it designed a health insurance plan it sold only to those holding, or purchasing, life and accident policies as a way to keep existing and attract new business.

  Aetna began selling group health policies in 1936 but and it wasn't until 1951 that they first introduced major medical coverage. The motivation for developing such coverage was that labor shortages and wage freezes (Korean War) made employee healthcare benefits an excellent way to attract and to retain workers.

  In 1966, the company paid the first Medicare claim and in 1982, it introduced its first formal HMO (Choice HMO, Chicago) and followed that up three years later by establishing a joint venture with Voluntary Hospitals of America to market HMOs, and PPOs.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare

• Through the 1980s and 1990s, Aetna primarily grew through acquisitions and mergers, becoming Aetna U.S. Healthcare in 1996 when it merged with U.S. Healthcare. In 2000, Aetna redefined itself into an independent health and group benefits company by selling its financial services and international businesses to ING.

Mission

• Aetna, Inc. combines its mission, values and goals statements into the "Aetna Way," a multi-element statement that forms a "shared sense of purpose" as employees pursue operational and strategic goals. The company's stated mission is to provide access to "safe, cost-effective, high-quality healthcare" in a way that protects its customers and end-users against health-related financial risks. At the same time, it intends to build customer satisfaction through providing broad choices of healthcare products and related benefits programs combined with effective customer service and communications.

Vision

• The company expects to become "the industry leader" in the diverse healthcare marketplace by creating "innovative and tailored product and service solutions" to meet unique customer needs.

Values

• As any successful company attempts to do, Aetna leaders say they focus on the people they serve with the common values of integrity, quality service and value, excellence and accountability, and employee engagement.