Name: Cigna CEO: We want to be the 'undisputed partner of choice'
Uploaded: 2021-04-22
Duration: 7 min 51 s
Description: David Cordani explains how the company plans to achieve that goal.

Cigna CEO:  We want to be the "undisputed partner of choice"

David Cordani explains how the company plans to achieve that goal.

David Welcome to on leading and thank you so much for joining us to talk about a signa. You know for years people look at Cigna as a traditional insurance company. This is where you would get coverage for your medical services, dental disability, even life insurance. But um now the company is so much more than insurance. How would you describe cigna today? The easiest way to describe us as as a global health service company. So we're have the privilege of serving 175 million customer relationships around the world. And we're guided by our mission so that global health service company is guided by a mission of helping the people we serve improve their health well being and peace of mind. So to your point that's much broader than insurance. Um it's a service portfolio that helps individuals live a better life and live with more fulsome life. You've made some significant acquisitions in the past few years, you bought express scripts which puts you into the prescription drug business. Earlier this year, you bought a telehealth company, MG Live. So I guess you can say that cigna is as much of a health services organization as it is an insurance company, right? You bet the two combinations you refer to. Um we're strategic in nature. One express scripts which has now been part of the Signal Corporation for almost 2.5 years was oriented on our beliefs that that pharmacological innovation represents the next decade future of health care. Thinking about the way in terms of specialty medications, vaccines as we see them, gene therapies be the curative or coping medications and services represent the future. From that standpoint. Second, it expanded those we could serve through in addition to corporate clients, health plans and governmental entities. And third, very importantly, it dramatically expands the depths of data that we have to be able to be more predictive. And then with MD live, our view is that the another dimension of change in the health care arena is around the way in which we access care. So re envisioning the way in which care could be access not triage oriented telemedicine, but coordinated longitudinal virtual care. And I think a lot of people don't realize that Cigna is huge. The companies ranked number 13 on the Fortune 500 you have a lot of cash on the book. So there's a lot of speculation. You can get even bigger by buying other companies. What do you want cigna to be known for? And how do you want people to describe Cigna? Let's say 22 years from now, one of our strategic comparative says we want to be the undisputed partner of choice as large as we are. We're very grounded in the fact that we can't do everything ourselves. Conversely, we seek to partner with others and co innovate co develop to accelerate value and services. So we want to be viewed as a partner that could advance innovation, advanced services. And then, lastly from a community Stewart standpoint, if I think about even during the the last 13 months of Covid, we challenge ourselves to be guided by our mission to give back to our community, to be first to give back to our customers and clients in a very different differentiate away to work with our healthcare professional partners who were dislocated. So we view ourselves less through the size dimension and more through the quality confidence, partnership and value creation dimension that we're we are responsible for delivering. Um, and we're excited about the future in front of us right now and what about affordability? Everybody wants affordable health care, what can signal due to make that happen? So two examples of how we're able to help our customers, individuals have more affordable health care going forward. First and foremost, help individuals either stay healthy in the first place or lower their risk for becoming sick. Um The ability to do so in terms of keeping somebody from becoming a diabetic or having a coronary event exists and that's not only high quality of life for an individual, but from an affordability standpoint. Second, is when health care needs to be consumed, help individuals identify the highest quality medical professional that can deliver them the best overall service from a quality standpoint, which happens to be the best affordability, Those two series of actions well, they may sound obvious and easy on a highly personalized basis or not, but when we do it, we deliver great value for consumers and better affordability. David. Let's talk a little bit about the covid pandemic. I understand that signal was the first insurance company to announce that it would pick up the tab on all medical costs for its insured members who were being treated for the coronavirus does need hospital bills, ambulance transfers, medications, and even waiving all the fees on a cost sharing payments. Why did you do that? And how do you feel about it now? I feel great about the decision we made at the point in time. The decision was made. Um, in some ways it was a hard decision because the data didn't exist to tell you how much it was going to cost or otherwise. But it was an easy decision for us. So why we made the decision, people were scared, there was massive uncertainty and guided by our mission around health while being a peace of mind, The peace of mind dimension informed us. So we made the decision, we carried the policy forward. Um and then we worked to advise our clients who were self funded, um what the benefits were from that standpoint. But looking back, um, it's a decision I'm quite proud of. And again, when those challenges happened, you're guided by your mission and our mission guided us to make the right decision there. Would you do it again, especially if the health care experts are correct in saying that there could be another serious wave of covid infection as we go forward. And as a society, we learn more about Covid, we're gonna need to live with Covid on a go forward basis. Um potentially annual vaccines from that standpoint, like we live for the flu standpoint. So now that there's broader acceptance, there's broader therapies is broader understandings, in most cases the products and programs and services cover those. But in the dis joint with a once in a generation global pandemic. I'm proud of the decision we made at that point in time, you wrote an op ed piece recently about the power and importance of living with intention. Tell us what you mean by that. And what does intention mean for the new priorities? Yeah. So it's being purposeful creating the agenda versus having an agenda be projected on you um, at the individual level and at a corporate level, but on a personal basis, having your plan around potentiality um is so important in terms of what you're going to seek to do and spend your discretionary time on versus not. So it's important whether in our company and our culture from an individual standpoint as well as is from the corporation to guide you and to provide that compass. And what about you, David? What are the leadership lessons that you've come away from this whole pandemic? How has the pandemic influence the way that you're leaving cigna today compared to a year ago? Pre pandemic A lot more energy around communicating and engaging because the ability to physically come together um is going away and I'm a field based individual. So I would spend a lot of time in the field in the markets around the globe seeing my clients, my customers are business partners, my co workers, so the biggest change communication, more variable engagement, heavier listening energy. Even further. We talk about listening first stop, listen and understand. Don't project. I know the answer, stop, listen and understand. And the virtual world challenges that in a very different way. So a meaningful amount of change out with suggestion terms of both where I work the way I work and how it works. But it's all in support of the team And trying to help our team be successful because we're serving the 175 million customer relationships every day.