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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.

Stakeholder Group How We Engage Stakeholder Feedback and Integration
Investors
  • Annual Report, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Press releases
  • Investor Relations website
  • Webcasts and conference calls
  • Health care investor conferences
  • Proxy voting
  • Investor visits to Cigna Headquarters
  • One-on-one visits to discuss financial performance and ESG issues
  • Engagement through Investor Relations, the Office of the Corporate Secretary, senior management and the company’s Board of Directors
  • Annual Meeting and Investor Days
  • Responses to ESG surveys from ratings firms and CDP
  • Adoption of 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.
  • Adoption of our special meeting and proxy access bylaws.
  • Elimination of supermajority voting provisions in our governing documents.
Health Plan Customers (Patients)
  • In-person conversations
  • Social media
  • Annual Report, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Cigna One Guide1
  • 24/7 customer service call centers
  • Health information line with access to nurses, nutritionists, educators, and health care specialists
  • myCigna and the myCigna Aapp2
  • Disaster Resource Center
  • Go. Know. Take Control® Campaign
  • Customer satisfaction surveys, customer focus groups, and net promoter scores
  • Social media
  • Communication of information on nationally recognized, comparable, and measurable standards that provide transparency into quality and costs.
  • Creation of Embarc Benefit Protection and Patient Access Program3
  • Development of employee unconscious bias training.
Employer Clients
  • Creation of health equity programs for employer clients focused on addressing social determinants of health and eliminating health disparities that may impact employee populations.
  • Creation of Embarc Benefit Protection, which protects both patients and employer clients against high price shocks.
  • Creation of tools that provide customers and clients with the ability to compare effectiveness of treatments, procedures, drugs, and medical devices.
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, Proxy Statement, and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Matching gifts program
  • Employee Enterprise Resource Groups and GreenSTEPS (Sustainability Team for Environmental Protection and Stewardship)
  • Company intranet, email, direct mail, social media, and in-person meetings
  • 24/7 Ethics Help Line
  • Overhaul of the performance management system and more frequent feedback. provided to employees
  • Development of unconscious bias program to increase cultural competency.
Health Care Professionals
  • In-person meetings, calls, conference calls
  • Conferences and convenings
  • Quarterly newsletters
  • Annual Report, Proxy Statement and Corporate Responsibility Report
  • Pharmacy outreach programs4
  • Creation of online tools to improve productivity and reduce administrative burden.
  • Institution of cultural competency trainings for health care providers.
  • Creation of Help With Pain hub available for health care professionals.5
  • Use of predictive analytics to identify patients who are more likely to suffer from an overdose and prompt interventions to help prevent overdoses.
  • Creation of Cigna for Health Care Providers website.6
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)
  • Deployment of procurement spending to a diverse range of suppliers and vendors, which includes firms owned by minorities, women, veterans, disabled, and LGBTQ individuals as well as local businesses.
  • Deployment of 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.
National and Local Government Officials Located in the U.S. 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
  • Expansion of anti-corruption policy to cover facilitation payments.7
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
  • Creation of a robust human rights policy that extends to suppliers, vendors, and business partners.
  • Creation of Supplier Mentor-Protégé Program (CSMPP) for diverse suppliers.8
News Media
  • Press Releases
  • Social media
  • Primary market research
  • Desk-side briefings
  • Creation of 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
  • Responses to ESG surveys from ratings firms and CDP

Health Is Everyone’s Business

In addition to being the first health insurer to join the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), we have been a leading member of the UNGC’s Health is Everyone’s Business Action Platform since its inception in 2017. The platform convened a broad coalition of businesses and UN, academic, and civil society partners to develop and advance a global agenda for planetary health in business. The work of this coalition focused on supporting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, which seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. At the end of 2019, this action platform delivered the Business Leadership Brief for Healthy People. In 2020, this workstream is being brought together with the UNGC climate action platform.

As part of this unique coalition, Cigna has shaped and tested a set of guiding principles for how to take action on SDG 3 and identified new collective impact and partner opportunities at the intersection of SDG 3 and our core business capabilities. Through these actions Cigna has continued to strengthen its integrated approach to human health by addressing its environmental and climate determinants.

Envisioning the Future of Health

Cigna conducted its second multi-dimensional materiality assessment in 2018 in order to inform the development of robust corporate responsibility goals, objectives, and targets. Through interviews, surveys, and focus groups with stakeholders across the country, we connected with employees, employer clients, customers, healthcare providers, executive leadership, our board of directors, suppliers, thought leaders, and community partners. The assessment confirmed that our targeted Cigna Connects strategy to support health, the environment, inclusive growth, and responsible business was directionally appropriate. Furthermore, our emerging strategies – notably our focus on mental health and deepening community impacts in local markets – were also separately recommended by stakeholders. The assessment also revealed opportunities for us to go deeper and drive even greater impact.

As a newly combined company in 2019, we sought to map and socialize the results of the assessment with key stakeholders in the company, receiving valuable feedback in the process. We are now leveraging these learnings to develop and advance a robust set of corporate responsibility targets in our focus areas of health and well-being, responsible and inclusive business, and the environment that align with our focus areas, our mission, and our scale.

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 Access Programs protect patients from high price shocks and create predictability.

4Programs provide information about patients’ pharmaceutical treatment patterns and options. These programs can help providers improve outcomes and avoid unintended drug consequences.

5The 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.

6Cigna for Health Care Providers website features information and resources providers can use to support the day-to-day needs of their offices.

7Cigna’s anti-corruption policy strictly prohibits facilitation payments.

8Cigna’s Supplier Mentor Protégé’ Program (CSMPP) 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.

9The First Day film, 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.