CVS Health, Cigna unveil Cigna Health Works collaboration

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. and WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health and Cigna on Thursday announced a new collaboration aimed at revamping the experience of patients on Cigna employer-sponsored health plans. Cigna Health Works will align Cigna-administered health benefits with CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic services to create a personalized health-and-wellness program for Cigna-covered patients in select markets, the companies said.

“Cigna Health Works flips the traditional health care experience on its head to help make health benefits more effective, affordable and user-friendly,” Michele Paige, VP and GM of Cigna Onsite Health, said. “This new model is based on how the customer wants to consume health care — it's about creating value and a new way for health care consumers to get more from their health plan, by ensuring that we are there for them at the places they prefer to go for convenient care.”

Cigna Health Works includes such benefits for Cigna beneficiaries as patient engagement and personalized support using Health Tag message on prescription bags that advice patients of necessary health actions from the pharmacist or a clinician, as well as provide information about available Cigna Health and Wellness Coaching services that are included at no additional cost with their health plan. Additionally, the collaboration includes contracted discounts at MinuteClinic for certain preventive and acute care, including biometric blood-pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar screenings and treatment for minor illnesses.

The collaboration also includes a CVS ExtraCare Health card that provides an exclusive 20% discount on such CVS Health-branded over-the-counter health-related products as vitamins, pain relievers, digestive health products and more. Cigna Health Works also can be paired with Cigna 90 Now, which offers 90-day refills for maintenance medication in an effort to improve patient adherence and cost savings.

“This new level of collaboration with Cigna is a part of the growing trend toward consumer-directed care,” CVS Pharmacy president Helena Foulkes said. “By providing information and cues for CVS customers and patients to help them get the most from their Cigna-administered health benefits, we also help them improve their health and reduce their health care costs in a way that's easy and convenient.”

Paige said that Cigna Health Works offers an opportunity for cost savings by providing beneficiaries an alternative to potentially costly urgent care and emergency room visits, and noted Cigna data showing that 45% of its greater south Florida customers’ urgent care facility visits could have been conducted in retail clinics. Doing so, Cigna said, would have reduced the patients’ healthcare costs by 81% per visit.

"As the popularity of retail health care continues to rise, Cigna Health Works is designed to help improve health care quality and address potential gaps in care,” Paige said. “In some markets, up to one-third of Cigna customers have used some form of retail health care within a year's time.”

The effort also is aimed at filling gaps in care. Cigna said that Cigna Health Works can help address such health concerns as lacking a primary care physician or accessing pre-diabetic health screening. Besides the discounted rates for acute episodic care at MinuteClinic locations, Cigna-administered plan patients will be able to access A1C blood-sugar testing, and MinuteClinic clinicians can provide patients with a list of in-network physicians for those without a primary care provider. Patients with existing primary care physicians can have their electronic health record shared with their physician.

“By connecting all constituents in the care continuum, Cigna Health Works is designed to close potential gaps and improve the quality of care our customers receive,” Paige said.