Dr Harold L. Paz on Aetna's Transition Towards Wellness and Value

Aetna is in the process of transforming from a traditional health insurance company to becoming a healthcare-focused company, in part by emphasizing value-based reimbursement and social determinants of health, said Harold L. Paz, MD, MS, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Aetna.

Transition (slightly modified)

What challenges do you foresee as Aetna continues to move toward value-based care?

For Aetna I would say the opportunity, and with that the challenge, is how we transform this company from being a traditional health insurance company to becoming a healthcare company. And that’s really our focus in our Vision 2020 strategic plan. We believe that in the future the emphasis will be on value-based reimbursement models and the need to really coordinate care for individuals that bring in the social determinants of health and the multiple determinants of health to increase the number of healthy days that each individual has. That’s not just physical health, but it’s mental health, and it’s social health.

To do that effectively, it really requires creating these innovative partnerships that begin in the home and are based in the community. That is a massive transformation for Aetna, but it is one that we’re fully committed to. It is in our vision and that’s what our entire strategic plan is predicated on.