Aetna Incorporates Patient Safety Language into Hospital Contracts

- Policy aims to focus attention on preventing medical errors and
encourage change through shared information -
HARTFORD, Conn.--(Business Wire)--As part of its commitment to improving patient safety, Aetna
(NYSE:AET) has incorporated language from the Leapfrog Group's Never
Events policy in its hospital contract templates for negotiations or
renegotiations that use a new contract. 'Never events' are a list of
occurrences compiled by the National Quality Forum that so threaten
patient safety that they should never happen. These include surgery
performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, leaving a
foreign object inside a patient after surgery, or discharging an
infant to the wrong person.

"Fortunately, these events are quite rare. However, it is
important to take steps that will increase hospitals' focus on why
'never events' happen, promote shared information and facilitate
improved processes that will prevent future events," said Troyen
Brennan, M.D., Aetna's chief medical officer. "More than 600 hospitals
across the country already have agreed to report these events
voluntarily. We want to support their leadership and safer health care
for all patients."

The language included in Aetna's template for hospital contracts
calls for hospitals to report the medical error to at least one of the
following agencies within 10 days of becoming aware it has occurred:
the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
(JCAHO), state reporting programs for medical errors, or patient
safety organizations. Hospitals also are asked to take action to
prevent future events, waive all costs related to a serious reportable
event ("never event"), and apologize to the patient and/or family
affected by the never event.

"Shared knowledge has the power to improve care. Only by
identifying patterns of patient safety risks and understanding their
causes can we ultimately implement change. We hope this strategy will
lead to broader adoption of quality measures and reporting, and we
encourage others in health care to support this effort," said Dr.
Brennan.

Aetna was the first health plan to endorse the Leapfrog Group's
approach to 'never events,' including public recognition of hospitals
that voluntarily develop procedures around reporting these events.

Patient safety is one of the nation's most pressing health
challenges. Since the publication of the Institute of Medicine's 1999
report on medical errors, To Err Is Human, public attention has
focused on patient safety and the prevention of medical errors.

Aetna has a history of activities aimed at increasing patient
safety that include e-prescribing pilots and covering online
communications between doctors and patients. The company's MedQuery
program uses Aetna's vast stores of member health data to identify
opportunities to improve the safety and quality of the care Aetna
members receive. The company also has built patient safety warnings
into its personal health record, and makes patient safety information
and tools available to members on its website including comparative
ratings of hospitals based on guidelines approved by the Consumer
Purchaser Disclosure Project (CPDP) and Leapfrog.

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care
benefits companies, serving approximately 36.4 million people with
information and resources to help them make better informed decisions
about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional and
consumer-directed health insurance products and related services,
including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and
disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care
management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer
groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers,
health plans, government-sponsored plans and expatriates.
www.aetna.com

Aetna
Karin Rush-Monroe, 215-775-2132
RushMonroeK@aetna.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008