Cigna’s new president of the Florida and Caribbean markets, Dean Mirabella, has been on a press tour in Florida.
Cigna provides health insurance for the two largest employers in Central Florida, Walt Disney World Resort and Orange County Public Schools, which combined employed nearly 88,000 employees.
I got the chance to sit down with Mirabella this week, who stepped into the role as Florida market president back in September.
Below is an edited version of the interview:
• Cigna is now offering LocalPlus in Orlando, Tampa and South Florida. The narrowed network of providers is, on average, 40 to 50 percent of Cigna’s full network of doctors and specialists, but still includes all the hospitals in the market. The trade-off is a 4 to 8 percent savings, on average. On whether employers are offering LocalPlus as an option or the only option:
“Right now it’s an option. As I think about the future, will LocalPlus or limited networks become single options? It’s possible. When you think about consumer directed health plans, now you see more employers moving toward a single option with that.”
• Cigna, like other insurers, is offering insurance products now that are a blend between fully insured — you pay your premium and that’s it — and self-insured, where Cigna processes claims but the employer pays for everything. The Cigna Shared Returns is in the middle:
“It allows the employer to share in their experience. So at the end of the year, we do a settlement, so that employer can get some money back. That resonates well in the market.”
• Mirabella said the trend of health and wellness programs is continuing:
“What we’re seeing on the employer side is a continued focus on wellness and health improvement programs. We’ve been talking about this for years, but what I’m seeing from the customer base is finally a time when I can say wellness is real.”
• Cigna is working with Orlando Health on the Cigna Collaborative accountable care organization, and that trend — where hospitals and providers are paid based on quality and outcomes, not volume — will continue.
“We’re just scratching the surface right now when it comes to building out these collaborative organizations. We’ve got pretty aggressive plans here in Florida.”
Date: Dec 19, 2013