(1888PressRelease)
May 13, 2009 - Customer service and claims management have been with a third party administrator, Herrington Health, since the early 1990s. But the state had handled recruiting doctors and other providers to the plan. (See background here) Now Aetna's network will be available to employees on the plan.
"It's something that, obviously with just a few people in the Seattle office, we can’t run a health plan for 180,000 people. We need a third party to do that work," said Health Care Authority spokesman Dave Wasser.
Full family coverage under UMP now costs employees a paltry $82 a month. Will the plan make UMP more expensive?
Wasser said costs are going up, but not because of the switch to Aetna. He noted the Legislature provided money to cover just a 3 percent annual inflation rate in costs, which means higher co-pays will likely be needed from members.
http://www.aetna.com/
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