Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini on Tuesday refused to discuss a possible deal with CVS Health Corp. but he described its future as a health delivery company if the Hartford insurer ultimately is bought by the retail pharmacy and health care company.
“What would you have to do to reimagine that experience so that you became the front door for the health care system?” he said at a technology conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
Asked what the “future shape” is of Aetna, Bertolini talked about personalized health that tailors individual treatments for patients. “We need to understand what they want,” Bertolini said.
“I think we need to keep people away from the health care system,” he said. “We should have an attitude that when somebody has to go to an emergency room or they have to go in the hospital or they need to see a specialist, we have failed them in some way.”
Health care financing, which now vexes policymakers because of its steep rise, would “go to the back room” and be “the cheapest available option for anybody trying to find their way through life,” Bertolini said during a session at the Techonomy 17 conference.
Bertolini said he met recently with George Blankenship, a former executive at Tesla Motors Inc., Apple and GAP Inc. Asked if he’s interested in developing a business modeled after Apple, he said, “It’s a real deal.”
Aetna and CVS have declined to comment on media reports that CVS is seeking to buy Aetna for about $70 billion, or more than $200 a share. That would represent a 13 percent premium to its closing share price Tuesday of $176.83.
“Of course I’m not allowed to comment nor will I comment on market speculation,” Bertolini said about the potential acquisition.
Analysts have said Aetna needs to consider ways to shift its business model, possibly linking with CVS, as a way to fully enter digital health care in which the insurer’s vast data holdings play a key role in personalized health.
In response to a question about moving Aetna’s headquarters out of Hartford, Bertolini said that when he met with employees and asked who wants to relocate to New York City, “everybody’s hand went up. It’s more about quality of life.”
“We have offices all over the country. Hartford is no longer our largest employee base,” he said.
Hartford will still be the site of 4,000 employees, Bertolini said. Aetna is set to open its $85 million headquarters next year. Aetna has 5,800 jobs in Connecticut.
Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Texas are now bigger employment sites “because that’s where people want to be,” he said.
Date: Nov 07, 2017