Texas Health Aetna was built to make health care simpler and more personal, and that relentlessly innovative spirit has proved a perfect match for these challenging times. From rapid-response telehealth to personalized care management and even to sending a team right to a member’s front door, Texas Health Aetna is reshaping what health insurance can be. 

“Texas Health Aetna is proud to provide innovative health-care solutions to our members during this unprecedented time,” said Del Doyle, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Texas Health Aetna. “We believe health care needs to be adaptable and reflect the needs of members. Right now people need flexibility, simplicity and safety — and that’s our mission.”

Texas Health Aetna is a joint venture between leading regional health system Texas Health Resources and nationally prominent insurer Aetna, built specifically to address care challenges in the 16 counties of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex of North Texas. 

Even before the pandemic, the average wait to see a primary care doctor in North Texas was 24 days, and 40 percent of people in North Texas had not seen a primary care doctor in two years. In fact, Texas ranks 47th among the states in primary care doctors per capita. 

That’s why Texas Health Aetna built its own telehealth solution, Anytime-MD, putting a live, local doctor trained in acute care into a member’s hands. Even as telehealth use has exploded during the COVID-19 crisis, Anytime-MD continues to have an average response time of less than a minute, 24 hours a day, every day. Patients using the app can connect via text, phone or video chat at no or low cost. Local Texas doctors listen, answer questions, advise, diagnose, and even help arrange necessary follow-up appointments or send prescriptions to the patient’s local pharmacy. Anytime-MD also features local behavioral health providers ready to assist members feeling anxiety or stress in these difficult times. Best of all, 85 percent of cases are resolved in one telehealth session, without anyone having to leave home—and saving the member a trip to the ER, which costs approximately $2,600 on average.

Local emergency rooms also have faced unprecedented burdens during the pandemic, highlighting the need for more efficient and cost-effective alternatives. In addition to fully covered services at any Minute Clinic® and HealthHUB® location at CVS stores in the area, Texas Health Aetna has also partnered with DispatchHealth to send a care team straight to a member’s homes in certain situations. Combined with Anytime-MD, these and other Texas Health Aetna programs are alleviating the stress on hospitals while ensuring great care when it’s needed. Avoidable emergency room admissions have increased 6 percent in North Texas, but Texas Health Aetna has noted a 13% decrease in these visits with its members. And that means saving money for everyone, too, because the average cost of an emergency room visit in North Texas is $2,577.

“It’s a win-win for everyone. Our members get care on their terms, and their employers save on their health costs too,” said DeWayne Wilson, CFO of Texas Health Aetna. “We’re proud that Texas Health Aetna has a 21 percent lower per member per month spending than the overall Dallas-Fort Worth market, driven by significant reductions in impactable admissions and readmissions to hospitals. But most rewarding is that we’re doing all this by putting people in control of their health, making things as simple as we can at a time when everyday life just feels so stressful.”

For more information about Texas Health Aetna and all the ways it’s providing innovative, simple health care to North Texans, please visit www.texashealthaetna.com.

ABOUT TEXAS HEALTH AETNA

Texas Health Aetna is a health innovation company created by Texas Health Resources and Aetna that believes health care should be simple and better, and finds new and better ways to make health care more personal, convenient, supported and intuitive. By proactively collaborating with brokers, employers, providers, members and the community, Texas Health Aetna aims to simplify care, reduce costs and set a bold, higher standard for health care in North Texas.