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Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Engagement

Our Cigna Connects corporate responsibility strategy is underpinned by the belief that Cigna has a vital role in creating a sustainable health care system that supports, empowers, and engages a broad coalition of stakeholders. We believe that proactive engagement with our stakeholders supports our goal of bringing positive changes to health care systems through mutual learning and transparency. The following describes our ongoing engagement:

Stakeholder Group How We Engage Stakeholder Feedback and Integration
Investors
  • Annual Report, 10-K, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Press releases
  • Investor Relations website
  • Webcasts and conference calls
  • Health care investor conferences, office visits, and roadshows virtually and in person as appropriate
  • One-on-one visits to discuss financial performance and ESG issues
  • Ongoing shareholder engagement, including:
    • Leading up to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, we invited holders of 75 percent of our outstanding stock to engage with us. In the fall, we invited holders of 61 percent of our outstanding stock to engage with us. Throughout the year, we engaged on governance-related topics with holders of 44 percent of our outstanding stock.
  • Annual Meeting of Shareholders and, in 2021, held an Investor Day
  • Responses to ESG surveys from ratings firms and CDP
  • Adopted the ‘‘Rooney Rule,’’ which requires that the Corporate Governance Committee and any search firm it engages include women and minority candidates in the pool from which the Committee selects director candidates.
  • Adopted our special meeting and proxy access bylaws.
  • Eliminated of supermajority voting provisions in our governing documents.
Health Plan Customers (Patients)
  • Coronavirus Resource Center
  • In-person conversations
  • Social media
  • Annual Report, 10-K, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report Cigna One Guide®1
  • 24/7 customer service call centers
  • Health Information line with access to clinicians, nutritionists, educators, and health care specialists
  • myCigna and the myCigna® App2
  • Disaster Resource Center
  • Customer satisfaction surveys, customer focus groups, and net promoter scores
    • Communicated information on nationally recognized, comparable, and measurable standards that provide transparency into quality and costs.
    • Created Embarc Benefit ProtectionSM and Patient Assurance Program.SM3
    • COVID-19 Pandemic Response:
      • Removed cost as a barrier by waiving out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19-related diagnostic visits, testing, telehealth screenings, and treatment.4
      • Protected customers from surprise bills from out-of-network providers for COVID-19 care through the Customer Protection Program.
      • Expanded our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for customers and household members.
      • Created the Cigna Care Card so employers can provide tax-free financial assistance to employees for qualified disaster relief payments, such as medical payments, groceries, child care, and wellness services.
      • Added a new furlough package that offers a prescription savings program (Inside Rx), a dental savings card, and more for customers.
      • Expanded virtual care offerings, including virtual wellness screenings in partnership with MDLIVE®5 and virtual maternity care in select markets, increasing virtual care by three times.
      • Provided virtual care for non-COVID-19 issues to customers at the standard in-office benefit.
      • Offered Cigna Dental Virtual Care powered by The TeleDentists to Cigna Dental customers.

      • Provided digital mental health care tools to customers and patients via Happify, iPrevail, and Talkspace, and SilverCloud Health.
Clients (Employer Clients and Health Plans)
  • Created health equity programs for employer clients focused on addressing social determinants of health and eliminating health disparities that may impact employee populations.
  • Created Embarc Benefit ProtectionSM, which protects both patients and employer clients against high price increases.
  • Created tools that provide customers and clients with the ability to compare effectiveness of treatments, procedures, drugs, and medical devices.
  • Expanded financial assistance to Cigna group dental clients by issuing one-month premium credits.
  • COVID-19 Pandemic Response:
    • Launched Express Scripts Parachute RxSM to provide prescription drug cost relief to Americans who are temporarily uninsured.
    • Provided financial relief to guaranteed cost group clients through the Guaranteed Cost Client Relief program.
    • Activated our COVID-19 Analytics Suite heat maps to assist O500/National Client office reopening strategy.
    • Created Healthy Ways to WorkSM, which provides companies with a diverse set of capabilities to move forward and keep people healthy long term by addressing both the immediate needs and the evolving nature of the crisis.
Employees
  • Employee pulse surveys
  • CEO-hosted quarterly Town Hall meetings
  • Senior-management-hosted quarterly business area town hall
  • Be HEARD (Helping Employees and Resolving Disputes): Our new Employment Dispute Resolution Program
  • Performance management and development programs
  • Volunteer events
  • Annual Report, 10-K, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Matching gift program
  • Employee Enterprise Resource Groups and GreenSTEPS (Sustainability Team for Environmental Protection and Stewardship)
  • Company intranet, email, direct mail
  • Social media
  • In-person meetings
  • 24/7 Ethics Help Line
  • Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
  • Updated performance management system and encouraged managers to provide more frequent feedback to employees.
  • Launched unconscious bias training, called Conscious Inclusion, for all U.S.-based employees. Additionally, to support an inclusive culture, we offer regularly scheduled optional inclusive discussions as safes paces to build bridges of understanding across our differences on a variety of complex Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion topics.
  • Offered an incentive award to those enrolled in our medical plan for being fully vaccinated against COVID.
  • Committed to inclusive hiring processes designed to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of our customers and to address underrepresentation. In 2020, we implemented a mandatory diversity of candidate slates process for senior-level individual contributor and above externally posted jobs. Requiring a diverse slate of qualified candidates helps mitigate unconscious bias, or the natural inclination to surround ourselves with people who think, act, and look like us. By mitigating unconscious bias, we can continue to improve gender and race/ethnic representation within our workforce.
  • Committed to reaching gender parity in our leadership pipeline by increasing the number of women at our director and senior director levels from 45 percent to 50 percent by 2024.
  • COVID-19 Pandemic Response:
    • In less than one month’s time, transitioned nearly 100 percent of employees who could work from home to do so, globally, until further notice.
    • Provided 10 Emergency Time Off days (80 hours) for U.S. employees to use for COVID-19-related absences, including time away from work to get vaccinated, through June 30, 2021.
    • Lifted restriction on Paid Time Off (PTO) being used before its accrual, until further notice.
    • Provided a 20 percent pay premium to U.S.-based employees with worksite-dependent roles.
    • Created an employee-focused COVID-19 resource site on Cigna’s company intranet.
    • Created an Employee Relief Fund to help employees experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
    • Revamped Cigna’s Employee Health Advisory Team (EHAT) to help manage the COVID-19 Response process.
    • Adopted a combination of measures to help protect those in worksite-dependent roles and limit the spread of COVID-19 at our worksites, including mandating physical distancing; installing barriers; mandating the use of face masks; providing guidance for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE); launching the Helping Employees: Cloth Face Coverings campaign for employees to make masks for worksite-essential coworkers; when necessary, making improvements to building ventilation; ensuring continued supply of hand sanitizer for good hygiene; and routinely cleaning and disinfecting.
    • Leveraged employee pulse surveys and focus groups during COVID-19 to understand our employees’ varied experiences and then created a variety of digital and programmatic resources for employee to utilize.
    • Eliminated the eligibility requirement for leave to care for a sick family member, when the illness in question is COVID-19.6
    • Created PPE Command Center, which delivered PPE to thousands of customers and Cigna clinical teams across the country.7
    • Enhanced our employee recognition program, Cigna Standout.
Health Care Professionals
  • In-person meetings, calls, conference calls
  • Conferences and convenings
  • Quarterly newsletters
  • Annual Report, 10-K, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Pharmacy outreach programs5
  • Created online tools to improve productivity and reduce administrative burden.
  • Instituted cultural competency trainings for health care providers.
  • Created Help With Pain hub available for health care professionals.8
  • Used predictive analytics to identify patients who are more likely to suffer from an overdose and prompt interventions to help prevent overdoses.
  • Created Cigna for Health Care Providers website.9
  • COVID-19 Pandemic Response:
    • Launched via Cigna and the Cigna Foundation,10 the Brave of Heart Fund in partnership with the New York Life Foundation to provide financial and emotional support to the families of frontline U.S. health care workers who gave their lives in the fight against COVID-19.
    • Made it easier for hospitals to transfer patients to long-term acute care hospitals and subacute facilities.
    • Donated medications to Washington University for a clinical trial on COVID-19 treatment.
Community Partners, Neighbors, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
  • In-person meetings, calls, conference calls
  • Social media
  • Events with local leaders, neighbors, NGOs, and advocacy groups
  • Board memberships
  • Financial support (grants and corporate contributions)
  • Employee volunteering
  • 24/7 Veteran Support Line (available to veterans and their families regardless of whether they are customers)
  • Deployed procurement spending to a diverse range of suppliers and vendors, which includes firms owned by minorities, women, veterans, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ individuals as well as local businesses.
  • Deployed grants that enable nonprofit partners to help patients overcome barriers to health and well-being related to factors such as ethnicity, race, gender, age, education, economic status, and place of residence.
  • COVID-19 Pandemic Response:
    • Launched an industry-first partnership with The National Emergency Responder and Public Safety Center to provide training to behavioral health providers to address the unique mental health needs of emergency responders.
    • Donated $250,000 toward COVID-19 relief efforts in China during the earliest days of the pandemic.
    • Created a COVID-19 Disparities Initiative that targeted several communities (Memphis, Houston, and South Florida) and employer clients in the delivery of a comprehensive campaign to protect, prepare, and support customers around COVID-19.
National and Local Government Officials Located in the United States and Abroad
  • In-person meetings, calls, and conference calls
  • Conferences and convenings
  • Lobbying activities, industry association participation, and public policy forums
  • Press conferences
  • Participation in government councils and committees
  • Transparency regarding political contributions
U.S. State, Federal, and International Regulators
  • In-person meetings, calls, and conference calls
  • Conferences and convenings
  • Lobbying activities, industry association participation, public policy forums, and press conferences
  • Expanded anti-corruption policy to cover facilitation payments.11
Suppliers, Vendors, and Business Partners
  • 24/7 Ethics Help Line
  • In-person meetings, calls, and conference calls
  • Conferences and workshops
  • Supplier/Vendor registration form and related websites
  • Supplier Code of Ethics
  • Created a robust human rights policy that extends to suppliers, vendors, and business partners.
  • Creation of Supplier Mentor-Protégé Program for diverse suppliers.12
  • Created a Supplier Sustainability Survey.
News Media
  • Press releases
  • Social media
  • Primary market research
  • Desk-side briefings
  • Created online newsroom to facilitate transparent and easy communication with the press.
Thought Leaders and Advocates in Issue Areas Related to Health Services
  • Board memberships
  • In-person meetings, calls, and conference calls
  • Conferences and convenings
  • Industry groups, roundtables, workshops, and events
  • Joint projects

1Cigna One Guide provides personalized concierge service, increasing health engagement by making it easier for customers to connect with, and use, their health plan benefits and resources, such as a family provider team and health and wellness rewards programs.

2myCigna and the myCigna App allow customers to find the cost of care, view claims, manage spending accounts, and receive plan notifications.

3Embarc Benefit Protection and the Patient Assurance Program protect patients from high-price shocks and create predictability.

4Enhanced coverage for COVID-19-related services applies to customers in the United States who are covered under Cigna’s employer-union-sponsored insured group health plans, insured plans for globally mobile individuals, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and the individual and family insurance plans. Self-insured group health plans administered by Cigna have an opportunity to opt out of these benefits. Treatments covered include those covered under Medicare and other applicable state regulations.

5Cigna acquired MDLIVE in 2021. MDLIVE is now an Evernorth business.

6Cigna previously required employees to work for one year and 1,250 hours prior to taking leave to care for a sick family member.

7Cigna Leverages Diverse Supplier Partners to Keep Employees and Patients Safe. (2020, July). DiversityPlus Magazine. https://diversityplus.com/digital/dp_julaug2020/index.html

8The Pain Resource Hub is a website intended for consumers, health care providers, and employers. It provides educational material and resources about pain: how it manifests, how it’s treated, and how to manage it safely.

9Cigna for Health Care Providers website features information and resources that providers can use to support the day-to-day needs of their offices.

10The Cigna Foundation is a private foundation funded by contributions from Cigna Corporation and its subsidiaries.

11Cigna’s anti-corruption policy strictly prohibits facilitation payments.

12Cigna’s Supplier Mentor-Protégé Program occurs over 18 months and pairs diverse suppliers with Cigna executives to develop strategies to strengthen and expand their businesses. Protégés have one-on-one monthly meetings with their dedicated mentor, and once each quarter protégés attend onsite forums to learn about industry best practices from subject matter experts. Cigna is committed to helping protégé companies grow their businesses so they can continue to contribute to their local communities.

13The First Day, presented by Center on Addiction and Cigna, is a new approach to prevention education. It focuses on the reasons why young people turn to substances in the first place rather than dwelling on later stages of the disease of addiction.