Aetna and the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) recently announced a new agreement, which took effect on July 1st, on a three-year contract that adds the hospital to Aetna's provider network. This agreement further strengthens Aetna's robust metro-New York network, having added Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center a few months ago, and now the world's leading hospital for orthopedics and rheumatology, as well as the HSS departments of anesthesiology, radiology, rehabilitation and pathology.

HSS was ranked number one in orthopedics and number three in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report magazine in its 2007 "America's Best Hospitals" survey. In addition to joint replacement, HSS's areas of expertise includes spine surgery, sports medicine, orthopedic trauma, hand surgery and foot and ankle surgery.

Plans covered

HSS, located at 535 East 70th Street in Manhattan, is available to employees and their dependents enrolled in the following products:

* Aetna Open Access® (an HMO plan)

* Quality Point-of-Service® (QPOS®)

* Aetna Choice® POS

* Managed Choice® POS

* Aetna Open Access® Managed Choice POS

* Aetna Choice® POS II

* Elect Choice® EPO

* Aetna Open Access Elect Choice EPO

* Aetna SelectSM

* Open Access Aetna SelectSM

* Open Choice® PPO

* Aetna HealthFund®