Boosts in Managed Care Enrollment Seen Across...( Aetna and Health Net of California...),Health

Aetna and Health Net of California See Big Increases in PPO Enrollment New Data Release of Managed Market Surveyor from HealthLeaders-InterStudy

Reveals New Trends in the Ever-Evolving Managed Care Industry

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthLeaders-InterStudy, the leading provider of managed care market intelligence, reports that managed care enrollment from January 2007 to July 2007 has seen significant shifts across the board, including growth at the plan, product and geographic levels. The details of this membership growth, from Medicare and PPOs to national and local health plans, is revealed in the new release of Managed Market Surveyor, a healthcare market intelligence product that examines the details of health plan enrollment growth.

"Fully insured managed care plans increased by 4.9 percent to 126.5 million from January 2007 to July 2007," states Jane Dubose, Associate Director of Health Plan Analysis for HealthLeaders-InterStudy. "Much of this growth is due in large part to the growth in the public sector."

Medicare managed care registered a 12 percent increase in enrollment during the period with 8.4 million beneficiaries in a variety of managed care plans. The market is seeing the effects of the Medicare Modernization Act, which boosted Medicare managed care by increasing reimbursement rates to health plans and by creating new products in this segment. Meanwhile, the Medicaid managed care sector remained relatively flat with a mere 1 percentage growth, even as several states have undertaken dramatic expansions of their managed care program in an effort to slow the growth of medical costs related to Medicaid.

Among the national health plans showing increased enrollment in 2007 was Aetna, whose PPO posted 27.5 percent overall gains. Aetna's growth came from nearly all of its markets -- but most notably in Connecticut, Ohio, Hawaii, Iowa, Delaware and Minnesota. However, Aetna's HMO dropped nearly 5
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