Word: cigna
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...previously criticized? "If you want to treat patients these days," says Himmelstein, "you have to become a part of HMOs." Other physicians have felt these pressures and become similarly, if less vocally, disillusioned with HMO practices. One Los Angeles doctor worked dutifully for three years as a neurologist for CIGNA HealthCare, a large HMO. When she advised the mother of a brain-damaged boy that a muscle biopsy might help diagnose the extent of his condition, she was chided by her bosses for suggesting the test. "I was told it was a mistake to tell the patient about a procedure...
...Still, the competition to win contracts is so keen that the system's capitation rate--the cost per patient, which averages $1,824 a year--dropped 11% last year. In the last bidding go-around, in 1994, 21 health-care groups, including such national giants as Blue Cross and Cigna, sent in 95 proposals for only 42 contracts. Every county, no matter how thinly populated, offers a choice of providers...
...Health Maintenance Organizations, CareData Reports of New York has compiled a list of what it says are the best HMOs in the United States. The health plans rated most satisfactory by 10,272 members of 33 different HMOs were: Kaiser Permanente in Connecticut; Aetna Health Plan in greater Cleveland; Cigna Healthplans in Houston; Oxford Health Plans in New Jersey; and Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. Even the best could work on their bedside manner, however. CareData reports that customers who were pleased with their HMOs tended to think the medical care was better than the customer service. At the same...
Republicans and conservative Democrats criticize Clinton's proposed caps on insurance premiums as a back-door version of oppressive government price controls. Says Lawrence English, president of the health-care division of Cigna, a major insurer: "I was initially encouraged to hear them say they were rejecting price controls. So I have a hard time understanding how that squares with the notion of caps on insurance premiums...
...grouping consumers and doctors into huge pools that would bargain with insurers over premiums and coverage. It was a foregone conclusion that small insurance companies would object, fearing they might be driven out of business, and they do. The odd thing is that the handful of large companies -- Aetna, CIGNA, MetLife, Prudential and Travelers -- that broke away from an organization called the Health Insurance Industry of America to form the Alliance for Managed Competition are also gearing up to oppose what is supposed to be their handiwork. Their argument: Instead of trying to institute a true managed-competition system...