Effective January 1, Cigna will no longer offer these products on their platform after renewals.  This is big news or at least it sounds that way.

• What does it really mean for those employers and their employees that have Cigna HMO and POS plans?
• Is this a trend in the industry for other carriers?
• In the next few days your employees will get a letter from CIGNA informing them of the fact that their plans will not be offered next year.
• What can you tell your employees that read this at their homes and are already scared about the future of their health insurance?

What is the real reason Cigna is dropping this coverage?
Corporate Synergies would like to let you know the real story.  First the good news!  Although Cigna is dropping their “HMO” and “POS” plans in these three states – New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware (at least), employers and employees that have these plan designs may not necessarily be affected at all!  Cigna has other benefit plan options that will treat you and your employees exactly the same as the POS and HMO product next year, so you as an employer and your employees will be able to get essentially the same benefit after they drop the HMO and POS plan at about the same price.

Cigna is dropping plans that are administered and filed using their HMO license. However, they will provide the same type of plans through their other state licensed platforms for you.

So why are they doing this?
The simple, straight answer is that when you offer products using HMO licenses in these states, you are required as an insurance company to offer other products in that state and the insurance companies lose quite a bit of money on those products.  So CIGNA basically said they can offer their customers the same product with their other licenses without the obligations the HMO license mandated on them.

The reason for the immediate rushed release from Cigna is that they are required by the states to give employees and employers six months’ notice. The other day Cigna received the approvals to do this so they needed to notify everybody (brokers, employers and employees) in such a short time frame.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU AS AN EMPLOYER?
Next year at renewal, you will look at some additional plan designs and carriers as you normally would do anyway, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to leave Cigna or that you will not be able to offer plans that look like an HMO or POS. 

But it does affect you today in a more immediate way and that is because of the notification, your employees will be very concerned and, as a benefits professional, it is really important that we communicate to them that they have no reason to be concerned and that you are on top of it.

As always, Corporate Synergies eAlerts have a second part to them which is to provide an easy, well-written, graphically pleasing alert you can forward to your employees. With this eAlert, we have prepared that as well. 

We hope this, like all our eAlerts, is to the point and useful. Thank you for your time reading this.

WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?
If you have questions regarding this eCommunication, please contact Corporate Synergies at 1.866.CSG.1719 or click here to contact us today.