Given the prognosis for Aetna’s future, discuss what you think would have happened to Aetna assuming they implemented their strategy as per plan.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

If Aetna continued on the path that they were currently taking by improving relations with physicians and consumers and telling the public about the positive changes they were making by communicating with all their constituencies in a better fashion, they would turn out to be a very profitable company and eventually people would tend to forget the mistakes that they had made in their past. Their stock price would improve with improved operational results and improved quarterly earnings as a result of their positive changes. When patients are well taken care of, they would not be so bitter and the number of lawsuits against the company would drop significantly, thus causing an increase in efficiency and earnings. Doctors would begin to support the company and this wouldcreate a great deal of goodwill which would translate into a greater number of patients signing up with Aetna for health insurance, which happened to be the biggest part of their business. If patients were happy with the way they were treated, it would create tremendous public goodwill for the company and this news would spread, increasing the number of enrollees and eventually contribution to Aetna’s bottom line. Aetna would be in a better position to deal with the increases in healthcare costs and would be able to survive situations that other companies would probably not be able to. Stockholders in turn would be happy with the results and positive returns that the company was giving them and the stock price would continue to go up due to this.