Partnership Marks Benefit Provider’s Expansion Into HR Contact Service
QUINCY, Mass., Nov. 2, 2005 – Aetna Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of health care benefits, has selected CitiStreet to provide certain human resources services and health and welfare administration, it was announced today.
Aetna had earlier selected CitiStreet as the provider for the company’s $2.9 billion 401(k) retirement program, which has 48,500 participants.
The human resources partnership marks the first time that CitiStreet has expanded its services to include human resources contact center support. Aetna-dedicated representatives at CitiStreet’s Jacksonville, Fla., service center will form the human resources contact center.
Those representatives will handle inquiries on human resources issues such as compensation, payroll, employee relations, recruitment and HR policy, as well as all health and welfare benefit matters.
"Most of these services are already outsourced, but maintaining multiple service providers can reduce leverage and lead to inconsistencies. Our guiding purpose was to centralize contact points for our employees and retirees in the most cost-efficient, user-friendly environment possible," said Craig Hurty, head of HR service delivery for Aetna, one of the nation’s leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits.
CitiStreet also partnered with Aetna to develop a simplified online knowledge base for all participants who want to obtain self-service answers to those questions. The knowledge base uses a Google search engine to help participants navigate the many thousands of pages of information, policies and procedures.
"Aetna is very advanced in the area of self-service technology. We worked with them to integrate CitiStreet’s knowledge base tool with all of Aetna’s HR policies and procedures onto a three-clicks-or-less system," said Monica Gallagher, CitiStreet senior director of client operations.
She said the consolidation of H&W and HR services online and at the contact center is expected to have significant ease-of-use impact on participants while reducing costs for the sponsor.
Aetna provides cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 684,000 health care professionals. It has about 14 million medical members, 13 million dental members, 9 million pharmacy members and more than 13 million group insurance members.
The expertise derived from the partnership with Aetna also opens the door for CitiStreet to offer similar HR outsourcing to other clients.
"We are proud to enter this partnership with Aetna, which is one of the most competitive, innovative, and consumer driven firms in the country" said Jim Murphy, president of CitiStreet and head of its Total Benefits Outsourcing division.
About CitiStreet
CitiStreet, one of the largest global benefits delivery firms in the United States, is headquartered in Quincy, Mass. CitiStreet has 3,000 employees at offices in Somerset, N.J., Jacksonville, Fla., Lewiston, Maine, Boston and field offices around the nation. It also has a division, CitiStreet Australia, with offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. CitiStreet serves more than 9 million participants and administers approximately $215 billion in assets in the United States for defined contribution, defined benefit and health and welfare plans of corporate, government, health care, Taft-Hartley and not-for-profit organizations. It also serves about 1 million participants and administers about $9 billion in assets outside the United States. CitiStreet is a 50/50 joint venture between State Street Corp. (NYSE:STT) and Citigroup (NYSE:C). For more CitiStreet information, visit the Web site at www.citistreetonline.com
