Hartford health insurer Aetna Inc. named pharmacist and former WellPoint executive Ren Elder has as its pharmacy head.
Elder’s responsibilities include overseeing Aetna’s pharmacy-benefit operations as well as its managing its strategic agreement with CVS Caremark.
At WellPoint, he was president of its NextRx unit, which included mail order delivery and specialty pharmacy facilities. He also was responsible for the company’s retail pharmacy network relationships.
Elder began his career at Lovelace Health Care in Albuquerque, N.M., as a staff pharmacist, eventually becoming pharmacy director.
In 1992, he joined Diversified, a division of United Health Care, as senior manager of clinical programs. Later, Elder spent 10 years at PCS (now part of CVS Caremark) rising to senior vice president, underwriting and pharmacy network strategies.
Elder has a masters of business from the University of Phoenix.
