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To: Lucretius who wrote (92168)	4/10/2001 11:44:02 AM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 436258

Aetna tanking today...thousands of doctors dancing in the streets (they are quite possibly the most reviled insurance company by the medical profession...and that's saying a boatload!) Note the reason they gave for their miss...it's NOT company specific, and bodes very poorly for the prospect of containing medical costs any time soon: dailynews.yahoo.com Aetna said it expects to record about $90 million before taxes in additional medical costs in the first quarter for services performed in prior periods, primarily in the fourth quarter. Almost half of these costs relate to a Medicare market the company exited effective Jan. 1. Aetna said it will treat those costs as a nonrecurring ''other item'' in its first-quarter earnings report. The company also said costs in its commercial health maintenance organization segment in the fourth quarter were about 13 percent higher than the year-ago period, slightly higher than the previously estimated rise of 12 percent. Cost trends in the first quarter also are running ``considerably'' higher than previous projections, Aetna said.