Cigna

CIGNA: Medicare PDP

New Agent Contracting: 2011 - CIGNA - New Agent Contracting

Broker Service: 1-800-903-7711

Customer Service: 1-800-577-9410

Website: www.cigna.com

CIGNA News

January 27th, 2012

Issue Uncovered With Cigna 1099′s

Cigna has identified an issue with the 1099′s that were generated and mailed to producers for the 2011 Commission Year.  2010 data was inadvertently used to create the 1099′s.  This has resulted in incorrect 1099′s to be generated for 2011 calender year.

Cigna has identified all producers that have received the incorrect 1099′s, and is in the process of creating an email blast for all producers who received an incorrect 1099 and whose email addresses are on file.  Producers will be mailed a letter informing them to disregard the 1099′s previously mailed.  If they did not earn commissions in 2011, they will not be sent a revised copy of the 1099.  Those producers who did earn commissions in 2011 will be receiving a letter in the mail along with a revised 1099.

Most importantly, the issue was identified prior to Cigna sending the IRS the 2011 commissions.  Therefore, the 1099′s that the IRS will receive will have the correct information for all producers for the 2011 calendar year.  They are expecting all revised 1099′s — along with all stuffers and letters — to be mailed or emailed out to producers no later than Monday January 30, 2012.

November 28th, 2011

Health Plan Acquisitions – What Do They Mean?

In a very interesting article this morning in Health Leaders Media, Margaret Dick Tocknell discusses 5 major Health Plan acquisitions and what implications they may have.  The article also discusses the different types of acquisition models, and how they exemplify what is going on in the Health Insurance market currently.

Two of the more interesting sections revolve around carriers of interest to our agents, namely Highmark’s acquisition of the West Penn Allegheny Health System & CIGNA’s purchase of HealthSpring.  Agents involved in those markets should read the full article.

October 20th, 2011

CMS Issues Change in Enrollment Period Guidance

UnitedHealthcare has provided us critical information concerning changes in how they are dealing applications & enrollments moving forward during the AEP.  In the recently released Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2012 enrollment and disenrollment guidance, CMS issued a change that could result in denied enrollments and affect your commissions when enrollment application forms are not completed accurately and completely.

In order for an MA organization to accept an election, a valid request must be made during an election period. It is the responsibility of the organization to determine the election period of each enrollment or disenrollment request. To make this determination, the organization may need to contact the individual directly. The plan may incorporate specific statements regarding eligibility of an election period with the enrollment or disenrollment request. However, if this information is not provided with the request, the plan must attempt to contact the individual by phone or other communication mechanism, and determine within the ten (10) day requirement if she/he is eligible to make an election at that time.

Though the CMS regulations state that the health plan has 10 days to contact the consumer and determine if they are eligible for the election period, it was later clarified and confirmed by CMS to be 7 calendar days, and the 10 day guidance was in error.

For full details on how this change could affect you, please read 2011 - CMS Change to Enrollment Timeline Guidance (89)

October 6th, 2011

CIGNA Releases 2012 PDP Drug Formulary

CIGNA has issued their 2012 Drug Fomularies for Plan 1 and Plan  2.  CIGNA offers a wide variety of medications on their formulary.  Both Plan 1 and Plan now include Liptor as a Tier 1 medication!

 

October 6th, 2011

N&F 2012 MA Enrollment Docs and Guidelines

Enrollment season is almost upon us!  On October 15th, agents will be able to begin to submit enrollments to various MA & PDP carriers for January 1, 2012 effective dates.  In order to help our agents be ready to send in their business, here are a number of resources relating to business submission:

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If your state is not blue on the map, CIGNA does not have currently have plans available in your state.
You can also view non-state specific documents

About CIGNA

CIGNA has built significant growth over the last two years beginning with their PDP plans in 2007. After launching very successful private-fee-for-service plans in 13 states in 2008, CIGNA is expanding into new areas with the 2009 season.