Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI), a global health service company, was honored by the Business Group on Health for its commitment to advancing the health and well-being of its workforce. This marks the 15th consecutive year Cigna has been recognized with this distinction, and this year the company also received the “Best Employers: Excellence in Mental Health” Award. Cigna rapidly innovated new ways to support its more than 70,000 colleagues globally as the pandemic unfolded, offering programs to help employees focus on their mental health, foster relationships while working remotely, and maximize workplace flexibility. Cigna also continued its annual Global Wellness Challenge which encourages all employees and their families to track time spent in various wellness activities for six weeks. In 2021, Cigna employees and their families tracked over 56 million minutes of wellness activity during the annual challenge. “At Cigna, we believe that our culture and our benefits should support both our employees’ health and well-being as well as their professional growth,” said Cynthia Ryan, chief human resources officer, Cigna. “As we continue to navigate an uncertain landscape, we are committed to providing our employees the resources they need to be their best selves, both at work and in life. We strive to offer this same sense of well-being to all those we serve, and we’re honored to be recognized for this important commitment by the Business Group on Health.” In addition to focusing on mental and physical wellness, Cigna also offered various financial well-being resources to employees, including Kashable low-interest loans and a $100 incentive for completing a financial wellness assessment. In terms of time off, Cigna’s caregiver leave program provides for up to four weeks of paid time to care for their families. The company also offered a year-long series of events featuring external wellness experts to inspire employees to foster their own emotional well-being as part of its “Reset Your Resilience” program. The Business Group reimagined the award criteria for 2022 to reflect a global perspective and to integrate and honor the importance of health equity and the employee experience. The criteria continue to focus on leadership and culture; holistic well-being approaches, including mental health, financial security, physical health, social connectedness and job satisfaction; and metrics and evaluation.

About Cigna

Cigna Corporation is a global health services company dedicated to improving the health, well-being and peace of mind of those we serve. Cigna delivers choice, predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalized solutions that advance whole person health. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Evernorth companies or their affiliates and Express Scripts companies or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits and other related products. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has over 185 million customer relationships around the world. To learn more about Cigna®, including links to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. Source: PR Newswire

Healthpilot, a leading AI-driven, fully digital platform for Medicare education and insurance enrollment, has announced a new partnership with Lincoln Financial Network (LFN), the retail wealth management affiliate of Lincoln Financial Group. The partnership will provide seamless single sign-on access to Healthpilot’s predictive technology through the Envestnet platform for more than 2,000 LFN financial professionals nationwide.

Healthpilot provides an easy-to-use online platform for people to find and enroll in Medicare plans with recommendations that are tailored for their needs. Using proprietary technology, the platform accurately estimates a person’s healthcare expenses and accommodates their doctors, medications, and other key attributes. Healthpilot then recommends the best Medicare plan available from all the options the platform offers and lets people enroll, all in as little as 15 minutes. With such a powerful platform, Healthpilot is transforming the Medicare insurance experience by making Medicare easy for everyone.

“For financial advisors, helping clients prepare for rising healthcare costs is often a challenging situation. Financial advisors have not previously had the tools to assist their retiree clients with health insurance issues that can have a major and direct impact on their financial plans. For the advisor’s clients, Medicare enrollment is particularly confusing, exhausting and frustrating,” said Dave Francis, co-founder and CEO, Healthpilot. “This new national partnership empowers Lincoln Financial Network to better assist with each client’s specific financial needs. Our advisor portal offers a unified integration of client information to uniquely and simply assist in this consequential aspect of their lives and enables the creation of a holistic, comprehensive financial plan for every retiree.”

LFN is dedicated to providing solutions, strategies and support that help financial professionals secure their clients’ financial futures. Through the use of an independent operating model and an open architecture design, LFN empowers financial professionals to design their practice around their clients’ unique needs and investment objectives.

“At Lincoln Financial Network, we focus on providing our financial professionals opportunities to use cutting-edge resources when delivering holistic wealth management services to their clients,” said Ed Walters, LFN’s Senior Vice President of Investment Products, Platforms and Practice Management. “We are excited to partner with Healthpilot, to make it easier for LFN’s financial professionals to leverage proprietary, AI-driven technology to integrate Medicare planning into their businesses.”

With decades of combined Medicare, healthcare, information technology and consumer experience, Healthpilot has quickly become a transformational force within the industry. Through a primary focus on serving the Medicare population, Healthpilot strives to make choosing healthcare insurance plans simple, efficient and effective.

Healthpilot provides vital cost estimation data to financial advisors though a secure portal. This means that advisors can now better protect their client’s financial plan and help to eliminate risk of major medical expenditures that have the potential to significantly impact retirement savings.

“We know that choosing the right health insurance is a critical life decision, especially for retirees. Doing the right thing for our financial advisor partners and their clients is our top priority. We strive to listen, educate and serve all of those who put their trust in us,” said Francis.

Healthpilot and the Healthpilot advisor portal are available at no cost to LFN financial professionals and their clients. For more information on Healthpilot, please visit healthpilot.com.

About Lincoln Financial Network

Lincoln Financial Network is the marketing name for the retail sales and financial planning affiliates of Lincoln Financial Group and includes Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. and Lincoln Financial Securities Corp., both members of FINRA and SIPC. Consisting of approximately 14,000 representatives, agents, and full-service financial planners throughout the United States, Lincoln Financial Network professionals can offer financial planning and advisory services, retirement services, life products, annuities, investments, and trust services to affluent individuals, business owners, and families. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (LNC) and its affiliates. Find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

About Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help people take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, and guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $324 billion in end-of-period account values as of December 31, 2021. Lincoln Financial Group is a committed corporate citizen included on major sustainability indices including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and FTSE4Good and ranks among Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies. Dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion, we are included on transparency benchmarking tools such as the Corporate Equality Index, the Disability Equality Index and the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. Committed to providing our employees with flexible work arrangements, we were named to FlexJobs’ list of the Top 100 Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2022. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Sign up for email alerts at http://newsroom.lfg.com.

About Healthpilot

Healthpilot has transformed the Medicare insurance shopping and enrollment experience. Healthpilot’s personalized, easy-to-use digital platform allows a consumer to find and enroll in a Medicare plan that matches the consumer’s needs and to stay optimally insured for the rest of the individual’s life. Healthpilot’s proprietary AI-platform and simple to navigate online process allow consumers in all fifty states to enroll in their Medicare plan easily and confidently without hassle or headache. Healthpilot makes Medicare easy. To learn more about Healthpilot, including links to follow the company on social media, visit www.healthpilot.com.

Source: PR Newswire

Trinity Health and CommonSpirit Health have signed an agreement for Trinity Health to fully acquire Iowa-based health system MercyOne, aiming to streamline healthcare access for Iowa residents and surrounding communities.

MercyOne was founded in 1998 through a collaboration between two nonprofit Catholic healthcare organizations: Catholic Health Initiatives—now known as CommonSpirit Health—and Trinity Health.

The health system offers provider services and urgent care to more than 3.3 million patients each year through 16 medical centers, 27 affiliate organizations, and 420 care sites throughout Iowa.

Since its founding, MercyOne has operated under a joint agreement between CommonSpirit Health and Trinity Health. With the recent announcement, Trinity Health will acquire all MercyOne facilities and assets and become the sole owner.

“True to our shared Catholic mission, our goal is to provide high-quality, compassionate care with the best patient/member experience possible. We will accomplish that goal through a holistic approach, with a range of health services and technologies that are fully connected and coordinated,” Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive officer at Trinity Health, said in the press release.

“This agreement creates a fully integrated MercyOne to care for more people in a unified way.”

Following months of analysis, Trinity Health and CommonSpirit determined that the acquisition was the right decision. Marvin O’Quinn, president and chief executive officer of CommonSpirit, noted that the joint ownership was instrumental in growing their healthcare services in Iowa, but the sole ownership will best benefit MercyOne and its patient population.

Michigan-based Trinity Health operates 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, and 125 urgent care locations across 25 states. With the complete acquisition of MercyOne, Trinity Health will integrate its unified strategies, operations, and system services into MercyOne’s care sites, the press release said.

MercyOne will transition to Trinity Health’s common platforms and adopt a single EHR system following the transaction. This will help streamline healthcare access for patients, as they can easily manage their care across all MercyOne facilities, the health systems said.

“We strongly believe this transition to become a full member of the Trinity Health family will result in a stronger, more cohesive health system better able to offer a convenient and personalized circle of care for all we serve,” Bob Ritz, president and chief executive officer at MercyOne, stated in the press release.

“We are delighted to have the agreement in place as we plan for the future of our mission. We are grateful to CommonSpirit for more than 20 years of partnership.”

The next steps require Trinity Health and CommonSpirit to plan for integration and complete regulatory filings. The health systems aim to finalize Trinity Health’s acquisition of MercyOne during the summer of 2022.

The organizations stated that the acquisition process would not disrupt care for MercyOne patients.

New data from CMS revealed that medium and large hospitals with low profit margins were most likely to get acquired between 2016 and 2021.

However, healthcare merger and acquisition activity stalled slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic and hit a record low during the first quarter of 2022.

In addition, healthcare mergers have faced significant legal pushback in 2022.

For example, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in February to block the merger between UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and Change Healthcare. DOJ stated that the transaction would hurt competition in the commercial health insurance and healthcare technology markets.

New Jersey-based hospitals Hackensack Meridian Health and Englewood Health recently terminated their merger agreement after a federal appeals court ruled against the deal and claimed it would increase healthcare costs for consumers.

Source: Revcycle Intelligence