Word: cigna
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Wendell Potter may be the ideal whistle-blower. The former head of corporate communications for health-insurance giant Cigna, Potter turned against his old colleagues in June to testify before a congressional committee about what he viewed as the health-insurance industry's "duplicitous" behavior in the current health-reform debate. In his testimony, Potter outlined specific techniques insurers employ to "dump the sick" and protect stock price at all costs. His testimony was logical, specific and convincing, but that's only part of what makes Wendell Potter a perfect turncoat in the eyes of the pro-reform movement. (Watch...
...year when he was watching MSNBC's Chris Matthews talk about how "the cosmos has shifted" this time around, that the health-insurance industry was at the negotiating table and on board with reform. Potter thought to himself, "Oh, jeez, Chris. Give me a break." Potter, who retired from Cigna in May 2008 after he became disillusioned with the for-profit health-insurance industry, decided to end his silence. (Potter's conversion was prompted in part by the 2007 case of 17-year-old Natalie Sarkisyan, who died shortly after Cigna initially denied her coverage for a liver transplant. Then...
...Brazil - dentists everywhere are telling me the same thing." Along with their smiles, employees are also rushing to look after their sight: Specsavers, a U.K. eyeglasses retailer with 12,000 corporate clients, saw year-on-year growth of 40% in 2008, despite the downturn. Corporate insurance provider CIGNA UK expects claims to jump as the crisis worsens. Says marketing director Ann Dougan: "People take a more proactive approach to their health when they worry they could lose private coverage...
...last year, Nataline Sarkisyan was in a California hospital. Nataline was waiting for a liver transplant; the donor was ready, and doctors estimated that she had a good chance of recovery. But Nataline did not get the transplant, because her insurer (Cigna HealthCare) classified this costly but commonly-performed procedure as “experimental” and refused to pay. After an extraordinary outburst of public protest, Cigna reversed its position, but not in time to save Nataline’s life. She died...
...Meanwhile, the Cigna Corporation estimates that in 2008 it will earn over $1.15 billion in profit; its Chief Executive Officer, H. Edward Hanway, took home a personal salary of $28.8 million in 2006. That is enough to pay for over 70 liver transplants...