Aetna Seeks Consumer-Data Companies, CEO Bertolini Says

Aetna Inc., the third-largest U.S. health insurer, will seek to buy consumer-data companies to help find new customers who buy individual policies, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said today.

The health-care overhaul calls for people without coverage to shop in state-based exchanges for subsidized medical coverage starting in 2014. The change will lead employers to shift more medical costs to employees, and Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna will have to learn to market to those potential customers, Bertolini said. Individual policies accounted for 2 percent of Aetna’s health-care membership as of Sept. 30, the company said Dec. 15 in a presentation.