Though Aetna is reportedly making moves to acquire health insurer Humana, the national health and life insurer is eyeing more local growth in the Bay State.
The move is years in the making, and the result of an internal survey Aetna (NYSE: AET) did three years ago that showed that Boston was the only top metropolitan service area where Aetna wasn’t one of the top three largest insurers.
In Massachusetts, that distinction belongs to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Neighborhood Health Plan for HMO plans when ranked by membership in 2013. In PPO plans, Aetna lags only behind Blue Cross Blue Shield and Harvard Pilgrim in membership as of 2013.
“We said, ‘Why is that? What is something we can do different?’” said Mark Santos, president of Aetna’s New England market.
The company has since embarked on a concentrated focus into a new market – employers with between approximately 101 to 500 employees. As part of the plan, the insurer has moved its Boston location to a new office on State Street, and begun adding employees specifically focused on growth.
Aetna isn’t necessarily new to Massachusetts. It has been present with larger, national clients for some time. Santos said many of its 210,000 members in Massachusetts – out of 23.5 million medical members nationally – are members through a national account.
Date: June 24, 2015