Cigna Vows Accountability Amid Public Anger After UnitedHealthcare CEO Slaying

The Cigna Group announced a new multi-year effort to improve accountability, transparency and customer support in the wake of public anger at the health insurance industry following the December 4 UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting.

Cigna’s announcement Monday to launch “actions to drive positive change for customers and patients” comes just days after company chief executive David Cordani addressed analysts and investors on the industry’s need to provide customers with more support and resources to navigate the healthcare system.

“In early December, we all witnessed the tragic murder of Brian Thompson, a leader at the UnitedHealth Group,” Cordani told analysts and investors on the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. “The past several weeks have further challenged us to even more intensely listen to the public narrative about our industry. At The Cigna Group, we are further accelerating improvements in innovations to increase transparency, expand support and drive even greater accountability.”

Cigna is the first rival of UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare to roll out some reforms since the December 4 shooting in New York on the company’s annual investor day. Thompson’s death unleashed a barrage of scrutiny on health insurer denials of medical care and certain other business practices from social media trolls and industry critics including some in Congress who say they’d like to see reform.

To ensure greater accountability, Cigna said the company “will tie its leaders’ compensation to improving the satisfaction of its customers.” And beginning in early 2026, Cigna said it will publish an annual “Customer Transparency Report” to make its progress towards its commitments clear. “The report will include important information relating to how the company facilitates customer care, including details about its services and resolution statistics,” the company said.

“We do a lot of good for many people, but we need to do better for everyone,” Cordani added. “We are committed to implementing tangible actions across our company to help drive better health outcomes and health care experiences. Today’s announcement marks initial steps in our multi-year journey toward building a better and more sustainable model in health care.”

Cigna has established five key areas of focus. They are:

• Easier Access to Care: The company said it will address the challenges customers face by making its “processes simpler, easier and faster.”
• Better Support: The company said it will provide customers with more support and resources to navigate the health care system. This will include expanding the number of so-called “Cigna Healthcare advocates” who will support customers and patients with more challenging medical needs such as cancer. The idea here is that patients with more complex conditions need more help navigating “every stage of their care and treatment journey,” Cigna said.
• Delivering Better Value: The company said it “will drive better value for its customers.” This will include investing more resources to help customers and patients more quickly resolve “administrative needs with prior authorization and post-care claims.”
• Accountability: Cigna will implement “governance processes at the highest levels to successfully ensure positive changes.”
• Transparency: Cigna said it would “openly share how it is continuously improving.”

Cigna’s moves on the Cigna Healthcare health insurance side of the business come less than a month after the company’s healthcare services business, Evernorth, announced a series of reforms. Evernorth includes Express Scripts, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management companies.

“Evernorth’s standard offerings will protect patients from paying the high list price of their medication, ensuring they benefit from the lower price negotiated by Express Scripts,” Evernorth said. “Additionally, patients in employer-sponsored plans will have improved financial predictability, receiving the benefit of savings negotiated by Express Scripts, if they don’t already.As part of this broader effort, the company also committed to providing an annual personalized summary to customers about how the discounted prices Express Scripts negotiates directly benefit them, and an annual standardized report for plan sponsors disclosing costs and pharmacy claim-level reporting.”

To ensure these new reforms are implemented and adhered to, Cigna also created a new “Office of Excellence and Transformation.”

“This office will partner across the organization to shape the company’s response to improve the health of the millions of customers it serves and ensure accountability,” Cigna said. “The office will have oversight by Dr. David Brailer, the company’s executive vice president and Chief Health Officer and a highly experienced physician. Additionally, Chris DeRosa will assume a newly created role leading the office, reporting to Dr. Brailer. Mr. DeRosa is a longtime Cigna Healthcare leader with a deep understanding of the needs of both customers and health plan sponsors, and currently serves as President, U.S. Government, Cigna Healthcare.”