CIGNA HealthCare Launches Innovation
Lab for Delivering Six-Sigma End-to-End Service
CIGNA HealthCare recently
launched an Innovation Lab designed to develop
integrated, top Six-Sigma level end-to-end
service for medical, dental, pharmacy and
behavioral health plan participants.
 |
CIGNA
leaders officially declare the Innovation
Lab open for business at the ribbon-cutting
ceremony in the Bristol, Connecticut
service center.
L-R: Ingrid Lindberg,
Scott Storrer, Michael
Showalter, David
Cordani, Steve Decker |
The Lab will be staffed with
100 specially trained consumer advisors representing
CIGNA's service, clinical and product teams
to discuss health benefit and related financial
information with consumers and help them
optimize their health, benefits and plan
selections. Innovation Lab consumer service
capabilities will feature a single contact
to respond to inquiries regarding any of
the participating members' CIGNA plans, including:
- providing health care cost estimates
and treatment quality information
- offering guidance during pre-plan enrollment
to help consumers in choosing a plan configuration
for their circumstance
- connecting consumers with available health
advocacy programs, such as wellness or
disease management programs, as appropriate.
Among the first customers for the Lab is
Big Y Foods® in Springfield,
MA. Big Y is one of the largest independently
owned supermarket chains in New England and
currently operates 54 stores throughout Connecticut
and Massachusetts with over 9,000 employees.
"We believe that a positive service
experience can help our employees to become
more engaged in their health care and make
better health-related decisions," said
Tom Butler, Big Y's Compensation and Benefit
Services Manager. "This is a unique
opportunity for us to partner with CIGNA
to test service concepts and solutions that
will help our employees and their dependents
receive the most from their health care benefits
and services."
The formation of the Lab will be led by
a Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will guide
the Lab's design, set-up and establishment
of performance and results measurement criteria.
Lab staff has been drawn from CIGNA HealthCare's
Bristol service operations teams and provided
with four weeks of specialized training.
Staff will also be responsible for testing
new consumer-facing technologies and health
support services.
According to CIGNA Executive Vice President
of Service and Technology Scott Storrer,
the Innovation Lab is the linchpin in the
new CIGNA service model, which places greater
emphasis on addressing the more complex issues
faced by today's health care consumer. "Our
consumer-oriented service strategy is focused
on improving the health of our members through
health advocacy and member education," Storrer
said. "This approach will help ensure
CIGNA's service teams can deliver maximum
value to customers and members in a cost-effective
way."
Notably, in May 2006 CIGNA HealthCare was
recognized for call center operation customer
satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power
and Associates Certified Call Center ProgramSM for
delivering "An Outstanding Customer
Service Experience" for its nine million
medical members nationwide.
|
