Cigna

Cigna

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: CI S&P 500 Component
Industry	Managed health care
Founded	CG and INA merger in 1982
Headquarters	900 Cottage Grove Road Bloomfield, Connecticut, U.S.
Key people	David Cordani, Chairman and CEO
Products	Health plans, Group Disability, Life and Accident Insurance, and Disability and Workers' Compensation Case Management
Revenue	$ 29.119 billion (2012)[1]
Operating income	$ 1.624 billion (2012)[1]
Net income	$ 1.624 billion (2012)[1]
Total assets	$ 53.734 billion (2012)[1]
Total equity	$ 9.769 billion (2012)[1]
Employees	35,800 (Dec 2012)[1]
Website	www.Cigna.com

Cigna (pronounced sig-nuh), headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut, US, is a global health services organization with a mission to help its customers improve their health, well-being and sense of security. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and services, the majority of which are offered through employers and other groups (e.g. governmental and non-governmental organizations, unions and associations). Cigna also offers Medicare and Medicaid products and health, life and accident insurance coverages primarily to individuals in the U.S. and selected international markets. In addition to its ongoing operations described above, Cigna also has certain run-off operations, including a Run-off Reinsurance segment.^[1] In the Phoenix, Arizona metro area Cigna runs a full-service staff-model HMO (health maintenance organization) with satellite clinics throughout the region, known as the Cigna Medical Group^[2]

‘Cigna International Expatriate Benefits' also operates under the Cigna corporation.

Cigna had approximately 35,800 employees as of December 31, 2012.^[1]

History

Cigna was formed by the 1982 merger of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG) and the Insurance Company of North America (INA), the first stock insurance company in America.^[3] INA was formed back in 1792 and is considered to be the ancestor of Cigna. The CG was created in 1865 by a special act of the Governor of Connecticut. In October 1871, the great Chicago Fire burned for two days, destroyed 2,000 acres and left 100,000 people in Illinois homeless. INA paid $650,000, one of only 51 insurance companies (out of a total of 202) to pay claims in full.^[4]

Before selling its international property and casualty business to the Bermuda-based ACE Insurance company in the late 1990s, Cigna was among the companies with the largest international network in the league of Allianz, AIG and Zurich. The deal was made for strategic reasons to concentrate on core business. ACE – at that time a key player at the Bermuda and Lloyds insurance market – on the other hand was interested on expanding the international network in the traditional insurance market.^[5]

Cigna sold the majority of its life insurance operations to Lincoln National Corporation in 1997.^[6][7]

Cigna now operates in 30 countries, has approximately 35,800 employees and manages around US$53.734 billion in assets.^[1]

In October 2011, Cigna has agreed to buy HealthSpring Inc. for $3.8 billion to jump-start its business selling Medicare plans from 46,000 Medicare Advantage members to almost 400,000 Medicare Advantage members.^[8] The payment would come from an issue of new equity to cover about 20 percent of the value, with the rest funded by additional cash and debt.^[8][9]

In 2002, it was alleged in violation of the Securities Exchange Act for earnings manipulation. Its common stock price plummeted significantly as a result.^[10]

Cigna International Expatriate Benefits

Cigna International Expatriate Benefits is a business unit within Cigna. The company is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, close to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additional Cigna International Expatriate Benefits operations are located in Visalia, California, and Greenock, Scotland and Shanghai, China. Sales offices are located in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Products and services

CIEB global health plans typically include medical, dental, behavioral and disability, as well as business travel and life components. Expatriates are defined as employees of multinational companies working outside their home country on short, and long-term international assignments.^[11] CIEB maintains its own, in-house international claims platform, and offers a network of physician and hospitals for its members (including 550,000 in the U.S. and more than 141,000 outside the U.S.).

Quality of care

According to Consumer Affairs, Cigna currently has the lowest possible rating (1-star/poor) for customer satisfaction.^[12]

The CNA has determined that Cigna denies roughly 39.6% of all claims (compared to competitors such as Aetna who denied about 5.9% of all claims in the same time frame).^[13]

Cigna's claim denial history is infamous to the point that in 2012, The Onion dedicated an entire article to lampooning the company and their CEO, David Cordani. ^[14]

Ethics

In December 2007, Cigna was criticized after the company refused to pay for a liver transplant of a California teenage girl, Nataline Sarkisyan, justifying their refusal to pay by claiming that the procedure was experimental, even though there was a liver ready and waiting to be transplanted and doctors estimated she had a 65% chance of surviving at least six months.^[15] In response to much protest and public scrutiny, Cigna reversed its decision, though Ms. Sarkisyan died awaiting the transplant.^[16] Cigna notes that it had no financial stake in the decision to authorize the transplant because it merely administers the insurance plan of Mr. Sarkisyan's employer and would not bear the cost of any operation. However, Cigna offered to pay for the transplant itself when it made the exception to the policy.^[17]

Even though liver transplants have been performed since 1963 and are a well accepted treatment option for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure, Cigna defended its actions by claiming that there was insufficient data to show that a transplant for a patient in Sarkisyan's condition would be safe and effective.^[17] Lawyers for her family are exploring litigation against Cigna.

The California court agreed with Cigna’s position that the Sarkisyans’ claims regarding Cigna's decision-making were preempted by federal ERISA law. On April 16, 2009, the United States District Court for the Central District of California dismissed all of the claims against Cigna related to the coverage determination.^[18]

In August 2012, Cigna fought and lost their argument in court that ABA therapy for autistic children is "experimental". The courts decided the therapy is a known treatment for autistic children, and Cigna’s arguments had no merit. Cigna is currently fighting to have this decision reversed.^[19]

Controversy

On February 9, 2005, CIGNA elected to adopt in the fourth quarter of 2004 fair value accounting for its stock options in accordance with SFAS No. 123 and to restate prior periods. ^[20]

According to Consumer Affairs, Cigna currently has the lowest possible rating (1-star/poor) for customer satisfaction.^[12]

The CNA determined that Cigna denies roughly 39.6% of all claims (compared to competitors such as Aetna who denied about 5.9% of all claims in the same time frame).^[13]

Cigna's claim denial history is infamous to the point that in 2012, The Onion dedicated an entire article to lampooning the company and their CEO, David Cordani. ^[14]

The UK newspaper Guardian in their "Esc and Ctrl" videoblog about control of Internet by corporations documented an incident of Nataline Sarkisyan and former vice president of Cigna talked about astroturfing, the practice of creating fake blogs by interested groups e.g. health insurance companies to push claims that are profitable for said company into media, e.g. dismissing universal health care.^[21]

Wendell Potter, a former Cigna executive, resigned from the company due to "disgust". He currently writes books, gives speeches, and contributes to periodicals about his disdain for Cigna and their treatment of customers.^[22]

Awards

Cigna received gold in the 2009 Gartner & 1to1 Customer Experience Excellence Award. The awards are given to the companies that "most clearly demonstrate exemplary customer relationship strategy and an unrivaled level of excellence in delivering the customer experience".^[23]

Cigna also recently received the JD Power award for customer service for all of its call centers for the fourth time in a row. According to the company, JD power ensures "Cigna HealthCare’s call center operations successfully passed a detailed audit of its recruiting, training, employee incentives, quality assurance capabilities, and management roles and responsibilities."^[24]

The logo of Cigna HealthCare, the health insurance company operating under Cigna Corporation.

Community and civic affairs and charitable giving

In 2008, the Cigna Foundation contributed $2,533,535 to charitable activities that promote wellness.^[25] Since 1995, Cigna and its employees have contributed $22.3 million to the March of Dimes.^[25]

In July 2010, Cigna began giving each company employee eight hours of paid time off annually to volunteer with non-profit health and community service organizations.^[26] The Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia helped kick off the program in front of Cigna's Philadelphia headquarters with the Christmas in July campaign.^[27]

Lobbying

Cigna spent more than $4.4 million from 2005 to 2009 on lobbying to attain legislation that the company favors. This includes $720,000 spent in 2009 alone, when it had 20 lobbyists at five firms working on their behalf.^[28]

Competitors

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Aetna Inc. (AET)
• Humana Inc. (HUM)
• UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH)
• WellPoint, Inc. (WLP)
• Health Net, Inc. (HNT)

Strategic alliances

On April 16, 2010, Cigna announced an alliance with Humana group to offer a streamlined Medicare Advantage offering through employer clients for retirees.^[29]

See also

• List of United States insurance companies
• Ebenezer Hazard

References

External links

• Cigna website
• The Onion: "Cigna Celebrates 50,000,000,000th Customer Denial"
• Wendell Potter - Former Cigna executive who resigned from Cigna in disgust