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"The Big Picture" Newsletter
September 2007
Latest News
CIGNA HealthCare continues gains in health care quality
Most recent data released by NCQA
CIGNA HealthCare HMO and point-of-service (POS) plans have again
achieved gains in key measures of health care quality that resulted
in more members receiving important preventive care and chronic care
services, according to data released this week by the National Committee
for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
For the second consecutive year, CIGNA HealthCare also provided NCQA
with information on quality indicators for PPO and consumer-driven health
care plans, this year encompassing 39 markets and approximately 4.3
million members. The NCQA is using the data to help establish
national quality benchmarks for PPO plans.
For the sixth consecutive year, the combined national average of CIGNA
HealthCare’s scores were higher than both the Quality Compass® national
average, and the average of its main competitors, for the majority of
preventive and chronic care measures used by NCQA in accrediting health
care plans.
According to this year's Quality Compass* the CIGNA HealthCare
national average across the "effectiveness of care" and “access/availability
of care” measures included in the Healthcare Effectiveness
Data and Information Set (HEDIS®)* increased
this year by 2.86% over 2006 levels. This year-over-year improvement
contributes to a 19.55% improvement over the last four years.
CIGNA HealthCare had notable improvements in measurements for colorectal
cancer screenings, childhood and adolescent immunizations, and eye exams
for people with diabetes, among other measures.
CIGNA – Best EAP for third straight year
Readers of Business Insurance Magazine once again chose
CIGNA Behavioral Health’s (CBH) Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) as the best EAP in the industry. Selected from among 10 of
the largest EAP companies for the publication’s Readers Choice
Awards, CBH was recognized for its long-term commitment to service,
value, quality and innovation. This is the third consecutive year
Business Insurance readers have selected CBH’s EAP as the best
overall EAP.
“Our EAP program provides an important entry point into the
health care system,” said Keith Dixon, president of CIGNA Behavioral
Health. “Our EAP consultants, who average 23 years of clinical
experience, work with individual members to assist them in developing
strategies to manage life’s complexities.”
The CIGNA Behavioral Health EAP offers services for members and
their families, in addition to resources for business managers. Members
can call CBH by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week and directly
access network providers with no referrals.
Results from new integration study prompt CIGNA to enhance package
discounts for medical, disability and more
CIGNA recently analyzed the claim results of several customers to determine
whether the integration of medical, behavioral and disability programs
had any impact on claims. The study showed that employees covered
through integrated programs are more likely to return to work during
the short-term disability period, resulting in an improvement of
at least 5% in the overall return-to-work rate. Look for more
information on the study results in the coming weeks.
Based on these findings, CIGNA has enhanced its discount program to
include package discounts for disability, health care and dental
insurance, when they are sold together. These discounts apply not
only to the initial sale but throughout the entire period CIGNA provides
these coverages. The new package discounts are as follows:
CIGNA Disability with
CIGNA Medical |
- 0.5% reduction in medical claim costs and 1% reduction in
ASO administrative expenses with purchase of both STD and LTD
- 2.5% discount to each disability rate (LTD, STD)
- 3% total
disability discount for dental and medical with disability
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CIGNA Disability with
CIGNA Dental |
- 1% discount to dental ASO fees
- 0.5% discount to each disability rate (LTD, STD)
- 3% total
disability discount for dental and medical with disability
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Discounts now also apply as follows when CIGNA life insurance is purchased
with CIGNA medical and/or dental -- 0.5% discount to each life rate
with medical or dental with life; and 1% total
discount to each life rate for dental and medical
with life.
Additional discounts are available when CIGNA's health advocacy programs,
such as CIGNA Well Aware for Better Health®, Maternity,
Behavioral Health, Pharmacy, CIGNA Health AdvisorSM, and other offerings,
are sold with a CIGNA medical plan. Talk
to your CIGNA sales representative for additional information on
all of the applicable programs and discounts.
CIGNA, HopeLab Promote Youth Physical Activity
Ruckus Nation Competition Highlighted During 2007 Health Awareness Tour
 CIGNA's
Health
Awareness Tour was all about promoting awareness of health care
conditions and challenges, and energizing people to take action to
improve their health. At the same time, the non-profit organization
HopeLab announced Ruckus Nation™, a competition that focuses on promoting
physical activity among children to fight childhood obesity.
Given the common goal of both the Tour and Ruckus Nation – to improve health – CIGNA
is, once again, supporting HopeLab in their efforts to improve the health of
young people. Read more about the
competition and how to participate.
Product Spotlight
CIGNA Pharmacy Management enhances Prescription Drug Price Quote
tool
The Prescription Drug Price Quote tool on myCIGNA.com provides
an interactive solution to manage care based on an individual’s
pharmacy plan benefits. Recent enhancements identify available generic
and low-cost therapeutic drug alternatives and display a side-by-side
comparison of retail and mail order drug pricing. In addition, a new “Perspectives” message
section provides actionable information to help the consumer, provider
and pharmacist make decisions and take actions that serve to improve
the consumer’s health, well-being and security.
What’s new?
- Step-by-step indicator bar that navigates
members through the process as well as helpful tips along the way to
selecting medications, dosages and identifying where the member would
like to obtain their prescription.
- List of retail pharmacy locations for selection,
beginning with the retail pharmacy that the member last used to purchase
their most recent prescription. If the member has not filled
a prescription, the tool allows for pharmacy selection based on ZIP
Code or an address search.
- Google map functionality features “call-out” boxes
that pin point the exact location of each retail pharmacy.
- Side-by-side drug pricing for the retail
pharmacy selected and CIGNA Tel-Drug Home Delivery Pharmacy. The
new format clearly highlights savings opportunities based on the member’s
benefit plan.
- Pricing for available generics and low cost therapeutically
equivalent drug alternatives. This information
helps members make cost conscious decisions regarding options that
may be available.
- A printable report that displays the drug pricing and
a physician discussion checklist
Discounts on non-covered and covered services added to CIGNA Dental
PPO & Dental EPO plans
Members can enjoy additional savings
Effective January 1, 2008, members enrolled in either a CIGNA DPPO or
DEPO plan can enjoy discounts
on non-covered services. The discounts also apply to covered services when they exceed their annual maximum
or other plan limitations.
Regardless
of how comprehensive a dental plan is, there are times a member may need
treatment for a service that is not covered. There are also situations
when members delay treatment for covered services because they reach
their annual maximum or other plan limitation. Our DPPO network dentists
have agreed to offer their negotiated contracted fees to our members
for most non-covered
services, as well as for covered services when members exceed
their annual maximum or other plan limitations, such as frequency,
age or missing tooth. To
take advantage, members must visit in-network DPPO providers.
CIGNA celebrates Life Insurance Awareness Month with new consumer
education toolkit
As part of CIGNA's overall effort to provide consumers with information
and resources to help make smart benefits decisions, CIGNA Group Insurance
has created an online Consumer Education Toolkit that focuses on the
importance of life insurance coverage. The new resource, available
at www.cigna.com/liam, was
introduced for Life Insurance Awareness Month in September and is designed
to educate American workers on what they should know about life insurance
and how our many value-added benefits can help them maintain their
health, well-being and security throughout their lifetimes.
A recent survey indicated that 68 million Americans have no life insurance
and those with coverage have far less than most experts recommend for
ensuring their family’s financial future. To help consumers
get a sense of exactly how much life insurance they might need, the
toolkit also provide consumers access to our life
insurance needs assessment calculator. This tool will provide
them with an estimate of their life insurance needs in a matter of
minutes.
Regional News
What's happening locally
CIGNA HealthCare news for your area
 Get
the latest CIGNA HealthCare news for your part of the country. Every
month, we post new articles of interest and
update the states to which they apply.
Here's where you'll also find up-to-date
local contact information to help you
with your questions and concerns. Want
to know the news for your area? Find
out here.
(NOTE: States with new
articles of special interest are highlighted
in blue.)
Organizational
Announcements
Dr. Allen Woolf named CIGNA Group Insurance’s chief
medical officer
Allen Woolf, M.D. has been appointed as chief medical officer for
CIGNA Group Insurance, with responsibility for managing the clinical
aspects of the company's programs that help promote health and wellness,
absence management and productivity.
In this role, Dr. Woolf will work with clinical and business leaders
for CIGNA Group Insurance's disability, life and accident products
and services and Intracorp's workers' compensation programs. As the
leader of the company's clinical community, Dr. Woolf will collaborate
closely with the physicians, nurses, vocational rehabilitation specialists
and other clinical staff who manage CIGNA programs that help people
return to work quickly and safely.
Throughout his 23-year career with CIGNA, most recently as medical
officer for CIGNA Behavioral Health/CareAllies, Dr. Woolf has been
extensively involved in the creation and ongoing management of population
health improvement programs. He has also held medical leadership
positions with CIGNA HealthCare and Intracorp. A graduate
of Harvard University School of Medicine, Dr. Woolf is board-certified
in Pediatrics and is licensed in the states of Pennsylvania, Missouri,
Arizona and Connecticut.
Dr. Woolf will join Dee W. Edington PhD; Director, Health Management
Research Center, University of Michigan, in a session titled “Impacting
Productivity with Integrated Programs” at the Joint
Forum on Health, Productivity and Absence Management, hosted
by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and Integrated Benefits
Institute (IBI) in Washington, DC, on October 23- 25. They
will review the results of recent research and employer case studies
to demonstrate the connection between health risk, disability and
lost productivity and the value of integrating both data and clinical
programs for enhanced health management in the workplace.
Ken Vaughan joins CIGNA Group Insurance as vice president,
national account sales
CIGNA Group Insurance announced that
Ken Vaughan has joined the company as vice president for national
account sales. Vaughan has 16 years of experience in employee benefits
sales, most recently with The Hartford, responsible for the New York
region.
Vaughan will be responsible for the overall national account sales
strategy both for new business and renewals for CIGNA Group Insurance,
which sells life, accident, disability, and dental coverage to employers.
In addition to his experience with The Hartford, Vaughan has also held
positions with CNA. He has a B.A. from Drew University. He will be based
in CIGNA's Philadelphia and New York offices.
Ken Sperling named senior vice president, retiree solutions
for CIGNA HealthCare senior segment
Ken Sperling has been named senior vice president, retiree solutions
for CIGNA HealthCare's senior segment. In this role, Sperling will
lead the development of products and services for businesses and
their retirees.
Since joining CIGNA HealthCare more than two years
ago, Sperling has been a member of the national accounts leadership
team responsible for strategy development, consultant relationships,
and CIGNA's participation in a number of industry groups. He currently
co-chairs Care Focused Purchasing, a multi- stakeholder effort to
provide provider cost and quality transparency on a national basis.
Prior to CIGNA,
he spent 17 years with the global consulting firm Hewitt Associates
LLC, where he managed Hewitt's health care consulting practice on the east coast,
developed health care strategy for Fortune 500 companies, and was Hewitt's liaison
to the Wall Street community for guidance on market trends.
A noted author, Sperling
co-wrote the textbook "Fundamentals of Flexible
Compensation" and has been published in The Journal of Applied Corporate
Finance, Benefits Quarterly, Pension World, and the Journal of Compensation & Benefits.
“CIGNA” and “CIGNA HealthCare” refer
to various operating subsidiaries of CIGNA Corporation. Products
and services are provided by these operating
subsidiaries and not by CIGNA Corporation. These
operating subsidiaries include Connecticut General
Life Insurance Company, Tel-Drug, Inc. and its
affiliates, CIGNA Behavioral Health, Inc., Intracorp,
and HMO or service company subsidiaries of CIGNA
Health Corporation and CIGNA Dental Health, Inc.
In Arizona, HMO plans are offered by CIGNA HealthCare
of Arizona, Inc. In California, HMO plans are
offered by CIGNA HealthCare of California, Inc.
In Connecticut, HMO plans are offered by CIGNA
HealthCare of Connecticut, Inc. In Virginia,
HMO plans are offered by CIGNA HealthCare Mid-Atlantic,
Inc. In North Carolina, HMO plans are offered
by CIGNA HealthCare of North Carolina, Inc. All
other medical plans in these states are insured
or administered by Connecticut General Life Insurance
Company.
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