Aetna CEO Embraces Alternative Healthcare

Hi Friends,

Aetna, the largest health insurance company in America now recognises the health benefits of yoga and craniosacral therapy in the field of healing and health.

Please have a look at this video where Aetna CEO, Mark Bertolini shares: “We know this stuff works, we believe in this, it’s just building the evidence base. We need to start somewhere, we need to pioneer somewhere.”

Watch video: Aetna CEO Embraces Alternative Healthcare

Some excerpts below (Source: forbes.com):

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini surprised many Techonomists at our conference in Tucson last month with his frank talk about alternative therapies and the need for the current health system to be “creatively destroyed.” Who would have thought the top man at one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies would be an advocate for craniosacral therapy and meditative chanting?

Aetna policy presently excludes yoga, meditation, and craniosacral therapy from coverage “because there is inadequate evidence in the peer-reviewed published medical literature of their effectiveness.” But Bertolini says that, after discovering that Aetna employees whose stress levels rank highest spend $2,500 more per year for healthcare, the company recruited 200 of them to participate in a 12-week mindfulness meditation and yoga study. The results, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, show that the traditional Eastern medicine practices reduce stress—as measured by heart rate variability and levels of the stress hormone cortisol—and, consequently, medical costs.

Since then, 6,000 Aetna employees and clients have completed the free program, he says. “We know this stuff works,” Bertolini says. “We believe in this, it’s just building the evidence base.”

His ancient-wisdom ideas just could be more revolutionary for healthcare than any advanced technology. We’ll watch his progress with interest!