Aetna has a special designation for specialists within their network who have met certain clinical and efficiency standards. It’s a network-within-a-network that gives you more and better choices for specialty care in areas ranging from cardiology to neurosurgery. Why is this important? First, it takes the guesswork out of choosing specialists. When you visit a designated specialist, you can be confident that you’re receiving quality care and the best value for your share of the cost. This is because these designated specialists have shown that they deliver cost effective care with fewer complications and repeat procedures.
Second, you receive the highest level of benefits from the plan – and pay less – when you use these designated providers. For example, you’ll pay a $20 copay for an office visit to a designated specialist – the same as for a primary care physician visit.
In many areas including Maine, Connecticut, Metro New York, New Jersey and many others, this network of designated specialist is called the Aetna Aexcel Network. For TD Banknorth employees living in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Upstate New York, this designated network is referred to as the Value Network.
Qualifying as an Aexcel or Value Network specialist Aexcel- and Value-designated specialists have met our stringent qualifications of excellence in the areas of case volume, clinical performance and cost-efficiency in order to make the list. Aetna analyzed doctors within the twelve specialty areas for clinical performance based on standards consistent with leading health care associations, as well as their 30-day hospital readmission rates, rates of health complications during hospital care, and other specialty-specific measures of treatment shown to improve outcomes.
The twelve specialty areas are:
- Cardiology
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Gastroenterology
- General Surgery
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Orthopedics
- Otolaryngology/ENT
- Plastic Surgery
- Urology
- Vascular Surgery
|
