Aetna is an American-managed organization that provides health insurance and other related products such as pharmacy, medical and dental plans, Medicaid services, medical management, life and disability plans. Specifically, the primary objective of the company is to provide people with the information and resources necessary for them to make better and informed decisions regarding their health as well as the financial component of healthcare. The company has three major segments: healthcare, large case pensions segment and group insurance. The health segment handles medical, pharmacy services, long-term care insurance as well as disability insurance. The large case pension segment oversees retirement products. Customers and stakeholders of the company include individuals, employer groups, college students, healthcare providers, health plans, governmental units, hourly and part-time workers, expatriates, labor groups, and government-sponsored plans (Aetna n.p).
Aetna is one of the country’s leading diversified healthcare benefits companies. It has about 46 million clients who rely on the company to assist them make decisions regarding their healthcare and healthcare spending (Aetna n.p). As of 30th June 2013, the company had 22 million medical, 14.3 million dental, 13.609 million group insurance, and 13.8 million pharmacy members. The company also has over 1.1 million healthcare professionals, 674,000 primary care physicians, and specialists as well as 5,589 hospitals. The company employees are expected to have sufficient content knowledge as well as knowledge of the customers. They are expected to be able to learn quickly about health insurance or have previous knowledge of health insurance. Employees should also be highly sociable because the company works with teams in most of its operations. The company values personnel who take initiative through consensus. There is a high degree of job satisfaction within the company as a result of the friendly company culture and high clarity of company objectives.
In terms of company culture, Aetna is strongly placed. Employees understand the pertinent issues regarding healthcare, and there is clarity on the objectives of the company. As a result, decision-making is not a lengthy and difficult affair at Aetna. The company also has reputable, ethical practices (Aetna n.p). The company champions the values that empower people to live healthier lives. Aetna is in an expansionary phase, and one of its strategies is to buy smaller rival companies. For example, the company has just recently bought Humana, the USA’s second-largest private Medicare insurance company, and a long-standing rival for $37 Billion. The combined company will amass revenue of close to $115 Billion, with a bulk of this revenue coming from government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. As a result of the acquisition, Aetna’s strategy of serving members in a rapidly changing healthcare climate will be advanced significantly.
I interviewed Kerry Carroll. Kerry’s role in the organization is the head of strategic transformations for Healthogen. Healthogen is a company within Aetna. Healthogen employs technology, data and analytics strategically to provide different populations of people with better health care services. The operations of this company are at the heart of Aetna’s success because it provides Aetna with information on the best places that patients can receive higher quality healthcare. Kerry’s job is to help in the development of the organizational strategy. This entails examining problems of the marketplace as pertains to healthcare and creation of more streamlined solutions and processes for the healthcare business. Overall, the interview was in keeping with the expectations that I had for the company.
Work Cited
Aetna,. 'Aetna Facts – About Us | Aetna'. Aetna.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 4 July 2015.
