Whole Person Health
In an earnings call with analysts, Cigna’s CEO spoke about the value of whole person health. The connection between whole person health and Cigna’s recent acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts remains unclear, however.
It is heartening to see a CEO at a major payer make this statement on an earnings call. It is especially noteworthy that he specifically pointed out that this more integrated whole person approach was “not a cross-sold or bundled approach” but was focused on better cost and quality outcomes.
….it is very clear in the marketplace through whether you look at government that lead pilots through the Medicare lines, whether you look at it through the successful value-based care relationships that exist or whether you look at it in terms of the evolving demand of employer clients, a more integrated approach which is not a cross-sold or bundled approach, but a more integrated approach that addresses the whole person, understands the need of a whole person and could connect the mind and body, the behavior, the lifestyle, the clinical, and partner up with a healthcare professional, that is a more winning proposition day-in, day-out that yields a better cost outcome. But it’s a better cost outcome from a better quality outcome. So I’d say a more consistent mantra relative to that in the marketplace.
As it relates to ASO [Administrative Services Only], there’s been a consistent trend for years now, as it relates to the marketplace, embracing more transparency and demanding more transparency through a variety of lenses and ASO is a mechanism to do so. And as you know from prior conversations, one of the reasons why we’ve been so passionate about ASO is transparency, presents an opportunity for alignment, alignment presents an opportunity for speed of shared execution which is what’s necessary here. So those trends are consistent, but just to amplify yet again, integration is different than bundling or cross-selling. It’s truly integrating around the whole person, the information flows, the incentives, the benefit designs with the clinicians, and we see that continuing to grow and we’re well positioned there.
Source: Cigna Corp (CI) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
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