Dive Brief:

Aetna is expanding a program that integrates its nurses into hospitals to prevent avoidable readmissions for its Medicare Advantage members.

The CVS-owned insurer is on track to scale the program, called Aetna Clinical Collaboration, to 10 hospitals by the end of the year . Implementations are currently underway with AdventHealth Shawnee Mission in Kansas, Houston Methodist in Texas and WakeMed Health and Hospitals in North Carolina, Aetna said Monday.

Aetna’s goal with ACC is to prevent unnecessary 30-day readmissions and emergency room visits, hopefully improving outcomes and driving down costs as a result. However, such programs have sparked concerns that they may be aimed at padding insurers’ profits at patients’ expense.

Dive Insight:

Avoidable readmissions are a b

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