Cigna International

My health insurance through my job is Cigna. I need a procedure in which my insurance company will not approve because they say it is not fda approved. Recently I learned that another patient who also has cigna was approved for the exact same procedure but yet I was told by Cigna customer service on several occasions that this was not fda approved and Cigna would not approve it for anyone. I do not know about you but this sounds like the truth is that this is an expensive procedure and that is why they are dancing around the real reason for the denial it is expensive. I guess the CEO who makes millions of dollars every year does not want anyone to cut into that.

I agree that Cigna is a terrible insurance company. I am a health care provider and I recently sustained an injury to my right foot awhile back. First thing that I did was try to get an MRI for it! I worry that if I had a suspected nodule that needed to be biopsied they would not allow it to happen. I guess by allowing people to remain ill and eventually die, Cigna insurance company can keep the insurance claims down. Way to go Cigna, thanks for taking care of my insurance claim to the injury in my foot!

My husband has Cigna Health insurance from his employer and we have had nothing but misery from them.

Claims are not paid. Huge deductibles ($4, 000 for our family)and we are not able to see our family physician of 12 years. To see our family Dr. we have a $6, 000 deductible and then they MAY reimburse us around 20% of their ALLOWABLE expense.

They sent a list of medications that are only covered if you buy from their mail order pharmacy. However you must pay up front two months co payments for a 3 month supply. One of my medications they only allow a 5 doses per lifetime. The cost is under $5 a dose at my local pharmacy. I have allergies to some dyes and fillers so therefore Cigna claims my meds are no longer generic but instead name brand and subject to a $60 monthly co payment even though they are generic brands. They justify this by saying anything is name brand if you can not use whatever they happen to have on their shelves at the time.

Cigna has made the cost of my prescriptions so expensive that I can no longer fill them. It would be over $700 a month. My blood pressure and blood sugar meds I am suppose to take them twice a day, instead I can only take them once every two days. My breathing medications are no longer affordable at all. Turns out it is cheaper to land in the ER 3 times a month than take my meds. When I argued with them on my non narcotic pain meds that they only allow 5 doses per life time they suggested I get a medical marijuana card. My diabetes testing supplies are considered name brand because there are no generics. Therefor test strips are $60 a month and lancets are another $60 a month for their PREFERRED BRAND All from their mail order pharmacy.

My family Dr:. can not get on their preferred provider list because they have enough family Dr's in the area|. In the area I live in many of their providers are the health department limited care clinic providers".

I have not had one claim I did not have to argue for months". Then they denied all claims back to February claiming we did not have former credible coverage with my husbands former employer". Cigna was the pharmacy carrier for the former employer!. Now I am suppose to write to Cigna and get a certificate of creditable coverage and mail it back to them?

This POLICY runs at $1, 500 a month and we are not allowed to opt out". What a rip off for no coverage.

My husband's employer began using Cigna as a health insurance provider in 2011. We also have an HSA for the first time this year.
In mid-February I had 2 claims, one on 2-15, the other on 2-17. Our deductible had not yet been met so both of the claims were sent to our HSA account for automatic payment. At total of $1, 566.07 was deducted from our HSA account for pay ent to the providers.
In early March I was told by one provider that they hadn't received payment and were trying to work with Cigna in order to verify an EFT payment. In late April I received a bill from the other provider showing no payment had been received by them either.
I called Cigna on 4-27 and was told by Consuela that they were working with the first provider (I'll call them Provider A) to track down the payment. Provider A, I was told, was being connected with a Cigna online business site that would allow the provider to track down all necessary information themselves.
Re the payment to provider B, I was told that an EFT payment had been made and was transferred to Chase (who runs the HSA) for further information. Chase informed me that everything Consuela had just told me was incorrect and that once Cigna debits my HSA account Chase can no longer see what happened to the funds.
So I called Cigna back and talked to Yolanda. She supposedly put in a request to get information as to how payment was made to Vendor B. She said that she hoped to get a response that day, or the next day at the latest, and would call me the following day with news.
Yolanda did not call me back so on the afternoon of 4-28 I called Cigna and this time spoke with Ray Lynn. She could see Yolanda's inquiry but said it looked as if it went to the wrong department. She said that she would put in a new request for tracking and would call me back on Sunday or Monday. She did not call me back.
I called Cigna again on 5-1 and spoke with Elia who sent me to Mandy who, before I could stop her, sent me to Chase where I was told the same thing I was told before--Chase can't help me once Cigna debits my account.
SO, I called back to Cigna again and spoke with Julie. She said that she could not see a payment being made in her system and that 'we are waiting to hear from that department'. I was supremely frustrated at this point and asked for a supervisor.
I was given to a supervisor named Jeff Ellison. He said that he would find out if funds were paid to vendor B. If not, the funds that were taken from my account would be credited. If a payment was made he would get me the check clearing info. I thought...finally, I'm getting somewhere...but I was wrong.
When I spoke with Jeff Ellison again on 5-4 he said that he could not find any record of payment having been made to Vendor B. He said that he would update the service request so that the money would be credited back to my HSA. He said that he would have verification within 24-48 hours and would call me back by that Friday, May 6th.
Jeff didn't call me on Friday the 6th or Monday the 9th. I left him a voice mail on the 10th and on the 11th. Late in the afternoon of the 11th I got a call from Julie (apparently calling instead of Jeff). She told me that the payment matter was still under investigation. Cigna did take the money from my HSA and did not pay the provider, but that Cigna couldn't figure out where the money went. 'When the mystery is solved we will credit your account'. At this point I was fuming. I explained that I didn't care what Cigna had done with the money or that they needed to figure out the glitch in their system. They admitted to having withdrawn money from my account and having not paid the vendor. There is no reason for further delay, I said, pay me back! She was so sorry, she said, but they were 'working' on it and she couldn't give me a date by which I would be credited.
On 5-16 I touched base with Vendor A to see if their payment issue had been solved. Big surprise, it had not. they had gotten online with Cigna's Business Services site but all the information that they could see was 'payment was made on X date'. No payment details or an audit to show which account the payment went into. As the provider said, "Cigna has been less than helpful."
I tried to reach Jeff Ellison again and could not--only voice mail. So I called the main number and asked to speak to another supervisor. I was transferred to Gracie Lewis. She listened to my story with a mixture of horror and disbelief. She kept saying, "that just doesn't sound right that we would have taken money out of your account, not paid the vendor and drug our feet in returning your money." She apologized for Cigna's behavior and said that she would do some research, get things straightened out and call me the next morning.
5-17: Gracie didn't call me this morning. I called her and she returned my call. She said that she is working with the client service partner (my husband's employer?) and her financial services department. It is confirmed that no check went out to Vendor B...yet, she cannot tell me when I will have my money back.
I explained to her that, in my eyes, Cigna's actions translate to theft and said that if any banking institution took $1566.09 from my checking account and refused to return it I would have solid grounds for legal action--same here--and I'm considering it.
She said that she was working really hard to get this resolved...blah, blah, blah. I explained that I had gotten that same story from every person I have talked to over the previous 3 weeks and that as 'hard as everyone is working on it' nothing is being done. She said that she 'escalated' the matter to a higher level. I asked if she was the first person to 'escalate' the situation and she said yes. If this is true, it's a clear sign of how terrible Cigna's customer service is. This should have been elevated to a high priority situation on 4-27 and should have been resolved within a couple of days. Instead, the issue was passed around and ignored. I'm not hopeful that dealing with Gracie will be any different. I told her that I read Cigna's Ethics Policy online and got a huge laugh about their dedication to 'fair treatment of customers' HA! I have never been treated so poorly by any company in my life. Frankly, never imagined that treatment like this was possible.
NOTE: I asked what was happening with the payment to Vendor A. She said the investigation is currently on hold until the matter with Vendor B is solved...assuming Vendor B issue is solved they will use the same template to solve problem with Vendor A. Again...ridiculous...as if everything at Cigna were being done by hand with pen and paper in a back room. If they can't work on issues simultaneously they are operating in the dark ages. IMO, they are simply not in a hurry to refund my money because...they don't have to be. And that's what makes me the most angry. We are financially well off, but I know that this kind of gross incompetence could wreck some families with big medical bills and shaky credit. Absolutely, totally and completely disgusted with Cigna.

The consequences of this clustered mess is that we have medical bills that are due...and in some instances past due...that we will either need to pay for out of pocket (and therefore lose the advantage of paying with pre-tax dollars with funds from our HSA) or risk having damage done to our credit...all because Cigna has taken our money and refused to return it.
If anyone out there in HR is considering using Cigna, I can say loudly and clearly RUN THE OTHER WAY if you value your employers and their time and sanity.

Although I'm covered for hearing tests and hearing aids, I'v been denied serveral times. All the calls made to CIGNA's telepone service reps were encouraging in that I was covered and that I should have had the Hearing aids paid for soons. Even though the service reps seemed honest, the bottom line is that still after serval months I received another denail. My company Con Edison of NY switched from United Health Care to CIGNA and it''s been the worst experianc ever. I need to contact an Governmental Agency or a lawyer because I'm fed up !

Years of paying for insurance in case of disability. Cigna paid the short term disability but when it turned into long-term, they terminated the long-term at the first follow up. Even though Social Security found permanent disability, CIGNA knows better and terminated payments. Reason? The mental health clinician used the term stable in her confidential medical records (stable in this case meant condition quit deteriorating when employment stopped) and a note indicating 8 hours of volunteering A MONTH! Wow, ability to volunteer 4 hours for two days of the month means able to work 320+ hours/month. Smart folks there at Cigna.

Iretired from Schlumberger and for 13 years they deducted $56 a month for a CINA policy to cover the 20% of the medical bills since medicare pays 80%. I paid $9128 for this insurance. The polecy book states that CIGNA would pay the total 20% after I paid $2000 out of pocket. When I sent copies of the hospital bills that showed I paid more that $2000 thay continued to reject the bills as not covered. I sent in the hospital bill to the CIGNA claims office that showed I paid $5, 847.44 but they seaid I had not exceeded $200. Where I went to school, 5847.44 was greater than 200.
Over time CINA rejected bilss for over $20, 000 as not covered. This does not go away I had to pay the hospital all bills that CIGNA refused to pay. It seems that the medical policy with CIGNA wsa a total fraud and they actually paid nothing, this fraud cost me over $30, 000 before I got Schumberger to stop taking money from my retirement for so called madical insurance..

Each passing day I am grateful to God that I can still get up and go to work. Some days are better than others but I have to go because our only other source of income is my husbands disability. In the mean time I have had several strokes and I was diagnosed with a PFO which stands for patent forman ovale also known as a hole in my heart. This hole is believed to be the cause of my strokes. Transcatheter closure of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) is considered medically necessary for individuals with a history of cryptogenic stroke . This was copied from the website below,
http://www.anthem.com/ca/medicalpolicies/policies/mp_pw_a053319.html
My health insurance through my job is Cigna. I need a procedure called Percutaneous Transcatheter Closure in which my insurance company will not approve because they say it is not fda approved. If that is the case why is this procedure being done on a regular basis . Recently I learned that another patient who also has cigna was approved for the exact same procedure but yet I was told by Cigna customer service on several occasions that this was not fda approved.and Cigna would not approve it for anyone and yet they approve another patient for the exact same procedure as what I am being denied for, I do not know about you but this sounds like the truth is that this is an expensive procedure and that is why they are dancing around the real reason for the denial it is expensive. I guess the CEO who makes millions of dollars every year does not want anyone to cut into that. One year the CEO made 12 million dollars and recently was saying that he was going to give his employees raises. Yea raises but at whose expense. Their customers expense. I was told I could have a major stroke and even die from this. In the last few days I have not been feeling well and I am not quite sure what is happening, I could become a vegetable or be dead at the age of 50. Please think about this, If this was happening to you or a family member you would be fighting like crazy and hoping someone would take the time and expose this injustice, Cigna is doing this because they think they can get away with this as they have done in the past. Together let us show Cigna and the government that this is not acceptable. No one as of yet has helped me so first come is the one who will get the story. The hint is that if something happens to me my family especially my husband has vowed that he will bring cigna to their knees and put them out of business. Who are they to decide who lives and who dies? Doctors would not put their reputations on the line and do a procedure that is not fda approved at the risk of being sued. I read about a 17 year girl who needed a transplant done and cigna would not approve it and finally as a result of people picketing in front of cigna they agreed to authorize the day the girl died. Now the girls parents are going after cigna for murder. So will my family if this happens to me. Think about how you would feel if everyone was sitting on their hands and your loved one or yourself needed a procedure as a matter of survival what would you do. You would hope like I am hoping that someone would have the guts to standup with me against cigna and say that this is not acceptable.

Please help me
Rose
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I was employed by Konica Minolta and my department was dissolved in January 2010. Konica paid for my insurance for 1 month and paid the supplemental cobra through ADP to Cigna. I am over 65 but because I was employed by a large company I paid $700 a month in premiums for me and my spouse. In February 2010 I fell and broke my knee. Cigna was still in force as the primary provider. They paid part and then demanded their money back from health providers, saying that because I did not carry Part B they were not responsible in any way for paying my claims. Medicare told me that as long as I was paying the insurance I would not need Part B

and after my layoff, I couldn't carry Part B and still keep Cobra. In May I started Part B, cancelling my Cobra, which was too expensive to maintain with the Part B premiums added. My daughter, who is a nursing home administrator has informed me that Cigna has the worst reputation in the health care community for paying claims and told me of her multiple experiences concering Cigna claims.

I have fought Cigna for the last 9 months each time I visit the doctor. They try to deny. They postpone payments. Cigna also sends forms to get my doctor to fill them out so that they can try to deny all of my claims. Funny thing is I am healthy and am going for normal stuff. No surgery at all. Someone really needs to investigate this company please!

My Husband has Crohn's Disease. Has had it for many many years. In March of 2008 he was diagnosed with Recurring Pyoderma Gangrenosum. He then developed a massive DVT in the same leg. We would later learn he has Vascular Disease. My husband is 46 years young.
Cigna paid one day of Short Term Disability stating that Mike had a staph infection which had healed. Completely ignoring the medical data about his Chrons, PG and DVT. Mike went back to work. He spent the next 15 months on and off STD trying to return to work, the PG continuously try to take his leg, until he finally wound up in the hospital. Through this time it became completely obvious that Cigna was doing their best to deny his claim. They would not recognize his illnesses, lose Dr. notes, not return phone calls from us or the Dr.'s and lose vital parts of Mike's file. His Dr. had to send the same Colonoscopy report 3 times. I was also told by Mikes case worker that if we wanted his Crohn's to be considered in his determination she would have to start a new case. This was a blatent disregard for ALL and ANY notes they had recieved. ALL of Mikes Dr. notes state CD first, then PG.
In December we received notification that Mike was now on Long Term Disability. By May they denied his claim. We were never notified that Mike was under review for LTD. As a matter of fact, their rep from Life Insurance department told Mike he was not when he asked. Verbally we were told that "weight loss" is a determination of wether CD is payable.
Verbally we were told that "weight loss" is a determination of wether CD is payable. We were told they needed labs, and that a colonoscopy report for 10 months prior is not soon enough. The American Cancer Society recommends a colonoscopy once every 2 years even for IBD patients. They want labs for PG, Cigna's Medical Encyclopedia states there are no labs for Pyoderma Gangrenosum.
We decide to appeal the decision and asked for Mikes file. Cigna sent out a partial file until they learned that we had hired an attorney. In the file their nurse case manager wrote, "went out of work for a DVT now claiming Crohn's disease and Pyoderma Gangrenosum." Proving yet again they are not reading the file, they are just "dumping" policy holders.
Cigna's Dr. evaluated Mike, after the determination was made. Said Dr. also teaches seminars on how to deny insurance claims. This same Dr. gave Mike a new job description, making it easier to say he is not payable.
We have 5 specialist in 2 different states agreeing that if Mike should not return to work, he will lose his limb. Cigna says they cannot pay on a diagnosis, ignoring the prognosis.
This company is unethical and does not up hold contractual obligations. Why pay into something for 18 years when they are so eager to screw you if you get ill? We taped them, they will not longer speak to us without us agreeing not to tape. If they were behaving in an ethical manner we would not have to tape. youtube kimike1000.

I files a pre-insurance estimate for dental work from my dental plan and my wife's plan, where I am also covered. Cigna Insurance stated, in their pre-insurance estimate that they would cover their portion. I had the dental work done and now Cigna states they will not cover their portion since my insurance is the primary insurer, even though I am covered under a separate policy through my wife's plan and the premuims are paid each month. Cigna has always paid in the past years and now wants to change their policy even though they obligated themselves through a pre-insurance estimate. Cigna SUCKS as an insurance company and I would advise anyone looking to avoid this company. No wonder the government wants to change health insurance with companies like Cigna. They will take your premium, but not cover you when they say they will.

We were told by Cigna to go to an in network specialist. It would be a copay of 45 dollars. We go and the provider that was given was affiliated with a hospital so the hospital did their billing. The hospital bills cigna and we were billed towards our 500 dollar deductible instead of just a 45 dollar specialist copay. We were there before and it was just a copay but they made a mistake, Cigna said, and it should've been applied to our deductible. If that is so, why did Cigna tell us a 45 copay and give us the provider to go to?

Does any one know what happens when the postal service is fraudently misplacing certain mail. My checks are late but my bills are on time and 1 of the checks I did not receive from Cigna insurance, misstakenly as they claim left out one of the number for the house number but their system for a physical address had the whole address correct, it those not make sense but it those to them as they get to keep the check longer and catch more interest and they do not do direct deposit. The insurance company that sends the check 7 days before due but the date printed on check shows other wise, they blame the mail service. After complaining to postal service, my check arrives in 1-2 days after with the exeception of the one check that i did not receive. This month after my 3rd complaint with the postal office, My neighbors one from a block away, are deliverying some of my mail that are being placed in their box mean while I also receive some in my box. I compalint to the postal service and instead of investigating their mail man they sent a compalint to consumer affair stating that is the next highest authority, never giving me a explaination of why after i file a compalint the mail man delivers it 1-2 days later. I thought it was federal and fraudulent when someone messes with the mail. So who procecutes the postal when it is within it. I have so many stories that has to do with our system and the corruption with proof as document and recordings of course other wise i would not state this. Sorry I cant place the proof they are recordings and i do have a paper from the postal with complaint.

I have had full cover for my dental insurance for many years now.
Every year we are told they don't cover this or that.

I did not buy insurance just for emergencies, I bought it to cover my dental plan.

Cigna Healthcare is not worth the monthly.

Your government should be ashamed for taking back hander's for this business to allow them
to refuse the insured and get bonuses for refusals. The more they refuse the more bonuses they get.

I am starting a smear campaign here in the Uk just for them.

I have been waiting to have surgery since July 2008. They keep requesting documents from my Dr & then don't follow up to see that they have them until I call the next time. In the meantime, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since June 2008 & either can't feel my left arm or have a left arm that is so painful, I am in tears.

I had a back operation on 04/29/08. I have paid for long term disability for CIGNa Insurance for 7 years.

The normal recovery time for the procedure I had is

3 to 6 months. Cigna thought I should have been back to work in 2 weeks. This is totally insane.

I have as yet not been paid and am at the end of my rope as I have lost the job I had. I have filed an appeal, but have gotten a royal run around. I don't know what to do next. Please help! My doctor would not ok me to return to work until the end of July (3 months).

Cigna does not pay for crutches after knee surgery? Good Grief! So much for patient safety! I suppose they won't pay for the brain injury when my husband falls, hits his head, either! $15.00 for crutches vs potential fall related to safety of the patient. No sense in this at all!

How on earth do insurance companies get away with the consumer rip off's they do? Surely there's an attorney the insurance company has tcked off in this population, or a relative of a ripped off consumer! It's time someone challenged these rip off insurance companies and the government start sending those in charge to jail.