Brown & Toland Physicians and Aetna Team up to Deliver High Quality, Coordinated Care to Aetna Members

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Brown & Toland Physicians (BTP) today announced a new accountable care organization (ACO) model of health care that is designed to improve the quality of care for Aetna members and lower health care costs. Members in an Aetna preferred provider organization (PPO) and Managed Choice (MC) plan and who receive care from Brown & Toland primary care doctors became part of this program on January 1, 2013.

“We are pleased to align with Aetna to provide a high level of care coordination for their members in San Francisco”

“We look forward to working with Brown & Toland to provide a new level of coordinated care for our members,” said Mark Reynolds, Aetna’s local president for Northern California. “This program is another example of how Aetna is working with health care providers to promote higher quality care, greater coordination, a better patient experience and lower health care costs.”

As part of the program, Aetna and Brown & Toland agreed to a new payment model that supports doctors in assuming greater accountability for the quality and cost of Aetna members’ overall health care experience.

Aetna will reward Brown & Toland doctors for achieving quality and efficiency measures, including:

• The percentage of Aetna members who received recommended preventive care and screenings;
• Improved management of members with chronic health conditions;
• Reductions in hospital readmission rates; and
• Reductions in emergency room visits.

“We are pleased to align with Aetna to provide a high level of care coordination for their members in San Francisco,” said Richard Fish, Brown & Toland’s chief executive officer. “We have comprehensive systems, a high quality physician network, and a dedicated care management team in place to help improve care and reduce costs for Aetna and its members.”

About Brown & Toland Physicians

Brown &Toland Physicians, based in San Francisco, is an independent practice association (IPA) of about 1,500 physicians (in San Francisco and in the East Bay as the Alta Bates Medical Group) serving more than 300,000 HMO and PPO patients. Brown &Toland is a six-time winner of the California Association of Physician Group's "Elite" honor and in 2011 was selected to participate in the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, a transformative new initiative sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. To learn more visit www.brownandtoland.com.

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 37.3 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 and health information technology services. Our 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.