They want to make sure “that [their] cultures don’t trump [their] strategies, and make the integration go better,” said Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference earlier this week, according to the report. “There will be storming and there will be noise — that’s just the nature of things, but if we make this investment now, we think that’s a good thing.”
Mr. Bertolini added that “[t]he first significant work we’ve done is around culture in our integration,” according to the report.
Aetna and Humana want similar characteristics for a new culture, such as self-based governance and increased employee engagement and trust. In fact, Mr. Bertolini noted that “our culture and theirs line up very tightly.”
Last fall, Aetna hired Rick Jelinek, former CEO of Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth’s OptumHealth division, to assist in making the merger run efficiently, according to Louisville Business First.
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