Aetna to Acquire ActiveHealth Management

Hartford, Conn. - Aetna has entered into an agreement to acquire ActiveHealth Management, a New York-based health management and health care data analytics company. Aetna will acquire privately held ActiveHealth for approximately $400 million and expects to finance the transaction from available cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and federal Hart-Scott-Rodino anti-trust regulatory approval. Aetna expects to close the transaction during the [second] quarter of 2005 and that it will become accretive to earnings within 12 months following the closing. Aetna places strong emphasis on medical management," says John W. Rowe, M.D., Aetna chairman and CEO, "and ActiveHealth's ability to provide practical, timely, clinical decision support to physicians and members can improve patient safety and medical quality and reduce medical costs." Aetna has been a customer of ActiveHealth since 2002, and has private-labeled the CareEngine-powered services it uses under the name MedQuery. Other health plans also have placed the services they purchase from ActiveHealth under private labels.Source: Aetna