Aetna to offer discount cards, starting in Denver, New Jersey

The insurer's move is part of a trend in which big health plans are looking for new ways to serve small employers.

By Jonathan G. Bethely, AMNews staff. Aug. 14, 2006.

Aetna is moving into a business more associated with placards stapled to telephone poles than big health plans -- private-pay medical discount cards.

Vital Savings on Health would allow companies to offer their employees prepaid cards good for 10% to 50% discounts off the cost of routine health expenses, when payment is made at the point of service. The company said the discount represents the range of discounts under Aetna's PPO plans, and that physicians would not be expected to provide additional discounts. Physicians would call a toll-free number or check a Web site to determine the rates for various services.

Vital Savings on Health is not insurance. Christine Skelly, Aetna's vice president of health-related financial solutions, said Aetna will target employers who want to offer their employees some medical coverage, but just can't afford a traditional insurance plan. Money will be deposited into the debit card via contributions from employers and/or employees.

Skelly said Aetna is taking several steps to inform physicians about the program, including written communication and visits to physicians' offices by Aetna staff members. Aetna will require its member physicians to opt out of the program if they don't want to participate. Without that notice, they're in.

On the surface, Larry S. Fields, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, says Aetna's plan to offer consumers discounted medical services along with a prepaid debit card sounds like a good idea. But he said the opt-out provision reeks of the days when Aetna and other insurance companies included "all-products" clauses in their contracts, meaning physicians would be bound to all of an insurer's product offerings.