Aetna is no stranger to serving Floridians. Now, the company is aiding Florida families who are expecting children, especially those families who experience life threatening deliveries.
This Summer, Aetna hit the ground running battling human trafficking. Brevard Family Partnership announced they would be working with the CVS Health company to support prevention, education, and intervention against human trafficking in Northeast Florida.
Now, the company's work is targeted at aiding other children, those fighting for their lives. The Floridian's Javier Manjarres sat down with Aetna CEO Jennifer Sweet to discuss the specifics. When asked about the rise in maternal complications in infant deliveries in the news recently, Aetna's plan was unveiled with Progeny Health in 2022 to provide Aetna Medicaid plan members added NICU support for those babies in need of specialized care.
"They have a highly specialized staff, they have targeted programs, everything is already set up to hit the ground running day 1," said Sweet. "We have received some remarkable outcomes through this partnership. We're now below the national NICU rate at 12, the national is about 14."
Starting this August, Aetna is adding Progeny’s maternity care management program to its services for members. This will help support pregnant mothers, especially those who are identified as high-risk, in addition to babies who require NICU care after birth. For high-risk births Sweet explained that patients will, "Have a care manager assigned, dedicated to a member, and they meet at the frequency that is appropriate to the complexity of the situation, and the care manager oversees all of the care that the person needs." Needs would include accommodations like transportation and even setting up appointments.
The project will not limit these mothers to the delivery process, but will also be helpful to recipients as they provide for their child. Benefits could include, food, water, shelter, and clothing.
"This compliments Aetna’s strong commitment to helping solve for our members’ health-related social needs," said Sweet.
When asked if the team was in touch with Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Sweet said that she had not spoken to the governor's office about the Progeny initiative, but was looking forward to run their efforts by the Executive Office.
"We have not been in direct communication. We have met with the governor's office last year on other things like our work force initiatives, but on the particular maternity one, we have not. We'd love to get in front of them though, and I think it might be more meaningful when we do have results to report," added Sweet.
