Aetna big winner in state HMO contract.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare has won a contract to offer health insurance to state workers in 69 of Ohio's 88 counties.

In an effort to cut costs and improve quality of care for its more than 60,000 employees, Ohio officials have slowly reduced the number of HMO options to six plans, starting July 1. There were about 25 health plan options afforded the workers eight years ago.

The next largest contract went to United Healthcare of Ohio Inc. for 41 counties, which includes mostly Central Ohio.

Kaiser Permanente was awarded the contract to offer health insurance in nine Cleveland-area counties, and Choice-Care, a subsidiary of insurance giant Humana Inc., was awarded five counties in the Cincinnati area.

Medical Mutual of Ohio in Cleveland will handle claims processing for state employees who chose to be in the state's traditional fee-for-service plan, which currently has …