Aetna

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Aetna Inc. (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, primarily through employer-paid (fully or partly) insurance and benefit programs, and through Medicare. Since November 28, 2018, the company has been a subsidiary of CVS Health.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The company's network includes 22.1 million medical members, 12.7 million dental members, 13.1 million pharmacy benefit management services members, 1.2 million health-care professionals, over 690,000 primary care doctors and specialists, and over 5,700 hospitals.<ref name=facts/>

Aetna is descended from Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The name of the company is based on Mount Etna, at the time the most active volcano in Europe.<ref name=history>Template:Cite web</ref>

Timeline

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1800s

  • 1819: Thomas Kimberly Brace became the principal founder and developer of the Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company, established in Hartford.<ref name="Litchfield Ledger – Student">Template:Cite web</ref> One of his co-founders was Joseph Morgan, father of J. S. Morgan and grandfather of J. P. Morgan. Brace served as the company's first President (and would remain on the Board of Directors until his death in 1860).<ref name="Litchfield Ledger – Student"/> Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, Yale graduate and attorney, became the second president of Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company, succeeding Thomas Kimberly Brace. Ellsworth, who later became the first U.S. Patent Commissioner, served as Aetna's president until 1821, when he resigned. He continued as a director at the company for another 16 years. Ellsworth's brother, William Wolcott Ellsworth, also served as a director, as well as the company's first general counsel.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1820: Brace authored the rewriting of the company Charter allowing Aetna to underwrite life insurance and annuities, earning Brace the title of "father" of American life insurance.<ref name="Litchfield Ledger – Student"/>
  • On May 28, 1853, the Annuity department separated from Aetna Insurance to be incorporated as the Aetna Life Insurance Company, with Eliphalet Bulkeley as president.<ref name=history /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The fire insurance company went on to become part of Connecticut General, which merged into Cigna.
  • On November 29, 1853, J. B. Bennett was appointed general agent of the company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1854: Aetna hired its first full-time employee, Thomas O. Enders, who later became president of the company.<ref name=history />
  • 1857: Aetna moved to new offices on Hungerford and Cone Streets in Hartford. The Panic of 1857 caused the closing of many businesses. Eliphalet Bulkeley blocked a move to liquidate the company during the economic downturn.<ref name=history />
  • During the 1850s, The Aetna Insurance Company issued life insurance policies on an undetermined number of African-American slaves, naming their owners as beneficiaries.<ref name="usatoday.com">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref>
File:Aetna Insurance Company and Aetna National Bank, Hartford, Conn, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg
Aetna Insurance Company and Aetna National Bank, Hartford, Conn, stereoscopic view, Template:Circa
  • 1861: Aetna began offering life insurance policies which paid dividends to policyholders just as the mutual life insurance policies did.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Aetna introduced its new service with higher commissions for its agents.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Life insurance policy sales grew during the American Civil War.<ref name=":0" />
  • 1864: By 1864, Aetna had increased its volume of business by 600% over 1861 and its annual premium income exceeded one million dollars.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1865: Due to the increased financial resources, by 1865 Aetna met the stringent regulatory requirements placed on life insurance companies in Massachusetts and New York and was authorized to begin soliciting business in these states.<ref name="history" />
  • 1867: Company income rose from $78,000 in 1861 to $5.129 million by 1867. Aetna moved to its third home office at 670 Main Street, Hartford.
  • 1868: Aetna altered its business practices, hiring its first actuary and abandoning the half-note premium system in favor of an all-cash premium plan.
  • 1872: Eliphalet A. Bulkeley died and Thomas O. Enders became president.<ref name=history /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1878: Aetna increased its capitalization from $150,000 to $750,000.<ref name=history />
  • 1879: Enders resigned as president and Eliphalet Bulkeley's son Morgan G. Bulkeley replaced him.<ref name=":2" />
  • 1888: Aetna purchased its fourth home office at 650 Main Street. It was the first building Aetna actually owned, and Aetna's home office for the next 42 years.<ref name=history />
  • 1891: Aetna issued its first accident policy to Morgan Bulkeley.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1892: Aetna held its first general agents conference in Chicago.<ref name=history />
  • 1899: Aetna began offering health insurance policies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

1900s

File:Aetna building in Hartford, Connecticut Pano 6.jpg
The Aetna headquarters building in Hartford was designed by James Gamble Rogers in 1931, and is the largest Colonial Revival building in the world.
  • 1902: Aetna created an Accident and Liability department to offer employers' liability and workmen's collective insurance, alongside the growing strength of the Progressive social reform movement.<ref name=":0" /> This would become the cornerstone of the Aetna Accident and Liability Company.<ref name=history />
  • 1903: An Engineering and Inspection Division was created to improve workplace safety.<ref name=history />
  • 1904: Aetna introduced its first corporate seal.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> The logo portrayed the company's home office bursting out from within a globe, with large block typeface spelling out Aetna's ranking.<ref name="history" /><ref name=":3" />
  • 1907: Aetna began offering automobile insurance.<ref name=":0" /> This business developed into the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company.<ref name=history />
  • 1908: Aetna hired its first home office female employee, Julia Kinghorn, a telephone switchboard operator.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1910: Under the management of E. E. Cammack, Aetna began using Hollerith punched cards machines for tabulating and hired 35 women to input mortality statistics on keypunch machines, the company's first female home office clerks.<ref name=history />
  • 1911: Aetna began its first national advertising campaign. The same year, Aetna formed a bond department to market fidelity and surety coverages.<ref name=history /><ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1912: Aetna introduced the first combination automobile policy, with several separate types of coverage combined into one contract. Several Aetna insureds were killed on the RMS Titanic.<ref name=history />
  • 1913: Aetna formed its second affiliate, the Automobile Insurance Company, to write fire insurance on cars.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref> This soon expanded to include windstorm, tornado, leasehold, and ocean and inland marine insurance. Aetna formed a Group department to sell group life insurance.<ref name=":4" />
  • 1917: Aetna's name changes to Aetna Casualty and Surety Co.<ref name=":5" />
File:Whitney & Whitney and Aetna-Ize Insurance Co. LOC npcc.12139.tif
Aetna insurance was sold in Maryland in 1924.

2000s

File:Aetna office in Whitpain Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 2012.jpg
Aetna office in Whitpain Township in Pennsylvania (2012)

2010s

File:Aetna of Nebraska Office Building (29991574667).jpg
Aetna office building in Omaha, Nebraska
File:Aetna office in Bismarck.jpg
Aetna building and grounds in Bismarck, North Dakota

2020s

  • 2020: In November, Karen Lynch was named CEO of CVS.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2021: In February, Lynch announced that Aetna would begin offering individual plans through ACA exchanges in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Lawsuits and regulatory action

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1999

2000

  • The U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a $1.855 million federal jury award for Brokerage Concepts Inc. (BCI) against Aetna U. S. Healthcare (formerly U. S. Healthcare), its Pennsylvania subsidiary, and one of its former senior executives, Richard Wolfson. In its suit, BCI accused Aetna U. S. Healthcare of tortious interference with contractual relations. BCI alleged the managed-care company used its economic power in the business of prescription drug sales to coerce one of BCI's clients, the "I Got It at Gary's" pharmacy chain, into using another Aetna U. S. Healthcare subsidiary, Corporate Health Administrators, as its health benefits management firm. According to the suit, Aetna U. S. Healthcare threatened to drop "I Got it at Gary's" from its pharmacy network if the company didn't switch to Corporate Health Administrators.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

2001

  • The Maryland Insurance Commissioner ordered five Maryland health plans to pay a total of $1.4Template:Nbspmillion in penalties for failing to comply with the state's claims payment practices; Aetna was cited twice and ordered to pay the largest fine of $850,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • The State of Texas fined Aetna $1.15Template:Nbspmillion for failing to promptly pay doctors and hospitals for services. Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor also ordered Aetna to pay restitution to physicians and health care providers who did not receive timely payment for claims.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2002

2003

  • To settle a class-action lawsuit between Aetna and 700,000 physicians and medical societies, Aetna agreed to streamline communications, reduce administrative complexity, and improve the quality of the health care system. The lawsuit was settled for $470Template:Nbspmillion and charged Aetna with systematically reducing payments to physicians and overriding their treatment decisions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Aetna and the American Dental Association (ADA) announced a class-action settlement by dentists who accused Aetna of interfering with dental procedures to cut costs and required dentists to comply with excessive paperwork. The settlement called for Aetna to pay $4Template:Nbspmillion to 40,000 to 50,000 dentists and $1Template:Nbspmillion to the ADA Foundation, a charitable group.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine fined Aetna's Prudential Health Plan $100,000 for violating Georgia's prompt pay law by delaying claims payments. Aetna companies had been fined four previous times by Oxendine's office, in 2000 and again in 2002, for a total of $411,200.<ref>[4] Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

2007

  • The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance filed an administrative order levying a $9.5Template:Nbspmillion fine against Aetna for refusing to cover certain services provided by out-of-network providers—including emergency treatment—in violation of New Jersey rules and regulations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2009

  • Former Aetna employee Cornelius Allison of Darby, Pennsylvania, sued Aetna in U. S. District Court in Pennsylvania after hackers gained access to a company website holding personal data for 450,000 current and former employees, and job applicants. The suit charged Aetna with negligence, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and invasion of privacy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • The Arizona Department of Insurance fined Aetna Life Insurance Company and Aetna Health, Inc. after examination of their practices exposed multiple violations of Arizona insurance laws. The department found that Aetna violated state laws governing areas of health insurance operations, including Aetna's: failure to provide policyholders with information about their rights on appeals of medical claims or services denials; failure to acknowledge receipt of policyholder appeals; failure to notify policyholders about appeal decisions/outcomes; and, in some appeals involving the denial of services for potentially life-threatening conditions, failure to inform policyholders of their decision within the required, expedited time frames.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2010

  • Aetna paid a $750,000 fine as part of a settlement with the New York Insurance Department related to the company administering an affordable healthcare plan for the state. Aetna's violations included: failing to provide a required 30-day notice of rate increases to about 946 members in 2007, failing to provide notice to 1,406 terminated workers of their rights to convert to another policy, failing to report enrollment data from May 2007 through August 2008, and failing to respond to Insurance Department requests for data in March 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2018

2021

  • On September 11, 2021, attorney Brian Adesman filed suit against Aetna in a federal class action lawsuit, alleging that "in administering the Aetna Plans, Aetna treats mental health as less important than physical health".<ref name="Landi">Template:Cite news</ref> Regarding the lawsuit, attorney Brian Adesman was reported in the media saying, "Insurance companies are not above the law and profits can't come before people."<ref name="Landi"/>

Life insurance policies on slaves

In 2000, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, head of the nonprofit Restitution Study Group of Hoboken, New Jersey, disclosed that, from approximately 1853 to 1860 Aetna, had issued life insurance policies to slaveowners covering the lives of their slaves.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The same year, Aetna acknowledged that concrete evidence exists for Aetna issuing coverage for the lives of slaves and released a public apology.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2002, Farmer-Paellmann brought suit against Aetna and two other companies in federal court asking for reparations for the descendants of slaves. The lawsuit said Aetna, CSX and Fleet were "unjustly enriched" by "a system that enslaved, tortured, starved and exploited human beings." It argued that African-Americans are still suffering the effects of two and a half centuries of enslavement followed by more than a century of institutionalized racism. The complaint blamed slavery for present-day disparities between blacks and whites in income, education, literacy, health, life expectancy and crime.<ref name="usatoday.com"/>

This suit was dismissed, and the dismissal largely upheld on appeal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2006, Farmer-Paellmann announced a nationwide boycott of Aetna over the issue of reparations for its policies covering slaves. Aetna stated that its commitment to diversity in the workplace and its investment of over $36 million in such areas as education, health, economic development, community partnerships, and minority-owned business initiatives in the African-American community are more effective at aiding descendants of slaves and African-Americans in general than making restitutions for Aetna's life insurance policies on slaves.<ref>"Aetna boycott is misguided Template:Webarchive", The Hartford Courant, November 23, 2006</ref><ref>"Judge's Order In re African-American Slave Descendants Litigation Template:Webarchive", District Judge Charles Ronald Norgle, July 6, 2005</ref><ref>"Decision on Appeal In re African-American Slave Descendants Litigation Template:Webarchive", December 13, 2006</ref>

Lobbying and campaign contributions

Aetna spent more than $2.0 million in 2009 on lobbying.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The company spent $809,793 between January 2009 and the end of March 2009—up 41 percent from the same period in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Aetna's campaign contributions include more than $110,000 (~$Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) to US Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2005 through 2009, Aetna contributed $56,250 to Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, making Aetna the senator's seventh highest contributor over that time period.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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Related topics

References

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