Aetna

Aetna Inc., the parent of Aetna U.S. Healthcare in Blue Bell, reported a 65 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits and confirmed that it had held preliminary settlement talks with lawyers in class-action lawsuits that allege the company's business policies harmed patients. Reporting its first earnings as a pure health-care company since selling its financial-services and international businesses last month, Aetna said yesterday that it was raising prices, slashing costs, and retreating from unprofitable markets to improve results in 2001.

Aetna Inc., the nation's biggest health insurer and parent of Aetna U.S. Healthcare in Blue Bell, announced a major new effort yesterday to cut costs and boost profits. The Hartford, Conn., health insurer said it would cut its workforce by 12.5 percent - eliminating about 5,000 positions - and record fourth-quarter after-tax charges totaling $565 million, including $100 million for restructuring and $235 million for dropping its Medicare HMO policies in 11 markets. Last week, Aetna completed the sale of its financial-services and international businesses to ING Group N.V. of the Netherlands for $7.7 billion, returning about $35.33 a share to stockholders.

Seven health insurers, including Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp., are creating an Internet-based claims-processing system that they promise will reduce doctors' aggravation in dealing with them. The insurers announced yesterday that they had formed a company called MedUnite Inc., whose online software will provide doctors' offices with a one-stop clearinghouse to handle claims, referrals and other matters for the seven participants. The aim is to reduce what Eve Dryer, a MedUnite spokeswoman, called "the hassle factor" that plagues doctors who must deal with many insurers - each with its own forms, eligibility requirements, and preferred modes of operation.

Aetna Inc., the parent of Aetna U.S. Healthcare in Blue Bell, said yesterday that higher medical costs drove profits down 14 percent in the third quarter. But the company said it had raised premiums and would pare operations to boost profitability in the coming year. Aetna also said it might take "significant" charges in the fourth quarter to pay for severance to departing employees and other costs of exiting unprofitable markets. Operating profit fell to $158.1 million, or $1.10 a share, in the quarter, down from $184.

'Premium' service from a health insurer While George W. Bush and Al Gore are debating the health-care system in this country, I have already received my good news. Aetna just sent me a bombshell: Starting in January, my premium will go up from $10 a month (plus co-pay on prescription drugs) to $50 a month, with no additional coverage for medicines. That means a husband and wife who continue with Aetna will pay $100 a month, as well as a whopping fee for their drugs. ED GALING Hatboro Race and stadiums Writers like Mark Alan Hughes (OpEd column, Oct. 16)

Six area hospitals said yesterday that they would not renew their contract with Aetna U.S. Healthcare unless they could win more favorable terms than Aetna has offered in contract negotiations. The move yesterday by six members of the Catholic Health Initiatives system was the latest indication that hospitals are getting bolder about pushing back at insurers they feel are not paying them enough for their services. The hospitals are St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne; Nazareth Hospital, Philadelphia; St. Agnes Medical Center, Philadelphia; St. Francis Hospital, Wilmington; St. Francis Medical Center, Trenton; and St. Joseph Medical Center, Reading.

John W. Rowe, a doctor for 30 years, is setting out to cure financially troubled Aetna U.S. Healthcare, the nation's largest health insurer. Rowe, the chief executive officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health in New York City, will take over as chief executive officer of Aetna U.S. Healthcare on Sept. 15. After the sale of its financial and international operations to ING Group of the Netherlands for $7.7 billion, Aetna U.S. Healthcare will be spun off to shareholders and assume the Aetna Inc. name.

More than 700,000 elderly and disabled people across the nation will be forced to change their health plans for next year because their HMOs are planning to withdraw from the Medicare program, an industry group said yesterday. Medicare officials did not dispute the report by the American Association of Health Plans, which represents the managed-care industry in Washington. Medicare administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle said seniors would retain coverage under the traditional government program if their health plans withdrew.

Leonard Abramson, the onetime pharmacist who created U.S. Healthcare and sold it to Aetna Inc. for $900 million, announced his resignation from the insurer's board of directors. Analysts said his departure, announced late Tuesday, was part of a housecleaning by Aetna's new chief executive, William H. Donaldson, and followed the exits of several executives whom Abramson had hand-picked before selling the company in 1996. "What we're seeing is the new CEO wanting to make a clean break from all the U.S. Healthcare people and their culture," a managing director at PaineWebber Inc. in New York, William McKeever, said.

Jane Coggeshall Soffronoff, 79, who had a varied career in nursing, died Tuesday at the medical facility of the Normandy Farms Estates retirement community in Blue Bell. During her career she worked as private-duty nurse, staff nurse, head nurse, evening supervisor, patient-care coordinator, director of nursing, and utilization review consultant. Among the facilities and companies were Abington Memorial Hospital, Temple University Hospital and Aetna/U.S. Healthcare, for which she held a claims position until retiring in 1989.