National health insurer Aetna and Texas Health Resources, a 27-hospital not-for-profit system based in Arlington, have agreed to jointly own and operate a new health plan designed to steer patients to specific providers.
Starting Jan. 1, Aetna and THR will offer the narrow network product in 14 counties around Dallas, where Aetna insures about 700,000 people. The plan will be available for fully insured and self-insured employers. Other terms were not disclosed.
Aetna's 50-50 partnership with THR—in which Aetna will handle care management and claims analysis and the hospital system focuses on population health and care delivery—comes roughly four years after Aetna struck a similar deal with Inova, a health system based in Falls Church, Va.
Anthem, the for-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield competitor of Aetna, formed a similar company last month with Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee.
