ATLANTA, GA (October 23, 2018) — Piedmont Healthcare and Cigna (NYSE: CI) today announced they have reached a new multi-year contract extension that will continue to provide in-network access for Cigna customers at all Piedmont facilities and more than 2,000 Piedmont Clinic physicians. The value-based agreement comes 120 days before the end of the parties’ current contract, ensuring the continuity of services for Piedmont patients covered by Cigna.
The Piedmont-Cigna collaborative care program has a proven record of improved health, affordability and patient experience since 2010. Healthcare costs have gone down year over year for Cigna customers. Within the collaborative, Piedmont has consistently kept costs below market average since 2014. Using Piedmont employees as a test case over the past five years, their medical benefit costs increased less than the rate of inflation and half the rate of the national healthcare cost trend.
“Cigna has been a great partner and this new contract demonstrates the strength of that partnership,” said Piedmont Healthcare President and CEO Kevin Brown. “When providers and health plans have a common goal, it is easy for us to find common ground on these extremely important agreements. Having this new contract completed 120 days before it was set to expire is a testament to that. The Piedmont-Cigna partnership also demonstrates Piedmont’s commitment to help curb the cost of healthcare for employers.”
The care model shared by Piedmont and Cigna is producing a lower cost of care that has proven attractive to other employers who chose those Cigna products that include or feature Piedmont providers, such as Cigna's LocalPlus product offering. The Piedmont-Cigna accountable care program is managed through Piedmont’s Clinically Integrated Network, which uses clinical informatics and metrics to continually measure outcomes regarding quality and cost performance. The results are lower total medical cost trends and improved quality outcomes.
“The results our partnership has produced over multiple years show what can be accomplished when a health plan and a health care system work together with the goal of delivering higher quality care while keeping costs in check,” said Bryan Holgerson, Cigna Market President for Georgia. “Cigna is proud of our ongoing partnership with Piedmont and look forward to delivering quality, affordable care for the customers we serve.”
Cigna has been a leader in the accountable care organization movement since 2008 and now has more than 200 Cigna Collaborative Care arrangements with primary care physician groups. They span 31 states, reach more than 2.4 million commercial customers and encompass more than 130,000 doctors, including approximately 74,000 primary care physicians and 60,000 specialists.