Full Description

CIGNA Corporation (CIGNA), incorporated in 1981, is an investor-owned health service organization in the United States. The Company’s subsidiaries are providers of healthcare and related benefits, the majority of which are offered through the workplace, including healthcare products and services; group disability, life and accident insurance, and workers’ compensation case management and related services. CIGNA’s revenues are derived principally from premiums, fees, mail order pharmacy, other revenues and investment income. The Company operates in five business segments: HealthCare; Disability and Life; International; Run-off Reinsurance, and Other Operations.

HealthCare

CIGNA’s HealthCare operations (CIGNA HealthCare) offer insured and self-funded medical, dental, behavioral health, vision, and prescription drug benefit plans, health advocacy programs, and other products and services that may be integrated to provide individuals with healthcare benefit programs. CIGNA HealthCare also provides disability and life insurance products that were sold in connection with certain medical products. These products and services are provided and administered by subsidiaries of the Company. CIGNA HealthCare offers Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans that require members to obtain all non-emergency services from participating providers, as well as point of service (POS) HMO plans that also provide a lesser level of insurance coverage for out-of-network care from non-participating providers. CIGNA HealthCare offers a product line of non-HMO managed care benefit plans. The Network product covers only those services provided by CIGNA HealthCare participating providers and emergency services provided by non-participating providers. POS and Open Access Plus plans cover healthcare services provided by participating, (in-network), and non-participating (out-of-network) healthcare providers.

CIGNA HealthCare offers a PPO product line that features a national network. CIGNA HealthCare's voluntary medical products are offered to employers with 51 or eligible employees and are designed to meet the needs of the working uninsured (such as hourly or part-time employees) by offering limited affordable coverage than traditional major medical plans. CIGNA offers the CIGNA Choice Fund suite of consumer-directed products, including Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA), Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) options. CIGNA HealthCare offers stop-loss insurance coverage to both experience-rated and self-insured plans. CIGNA HealthCare makes available to self-insured Taft-Hartley trusts shared administration products.

Through the Company’s CareAllies brand, CIGNA offers medical management, disease management, and health advocacy services to employers and other plan sponsors. CIGNA Behavioral Health provides behavioral healthcare benefit products, behavioral healthcare management, employee assistance programs, and work/life programs to employer sponsored benefit plans, HMOs, governmental entities and disability insurers. CIGNA Dental Health offers a variety of dental care products, including managed care, dental preferred provider organization (DPPO), dental exclusive provider organization (DEPO) and traditional indemnity products. CIGNA HealthCare offers prescription drug plans to its insured and self-funded customers both in conjunction with its medical products and on a stand-alone basis. CIGNA HealthCare also offers mail order, telephone and online pharmaceutical fulfillment services through its CIGNA Tel-Drug operation. CIGNA's Medicare Part D prescription drug program, CIGNA Medicare Rx, provides a number of plan options, as well as service and information support to medicare-eligible members aged 65 and over. CIGNA operates 19 retail pharmacies, including onsite retail pharmacies for customers to serve the needs of CIGNA HealthCare members.

Disability and Life

CIGNA's Disability and Life operations provide insurance products and their related services, including group life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, workers’ compensation and disability case management, and accident and specialty insurance. These products and services are provided by subsidiaries of the Company. CIGNA markets group long-term and short-term disability insurance products and services in all states and statutorily required disability insurance plans in certain states. CIGNA also provides case management and related services to workers’ compensation insurers and employers who self-fund workers’ compensation and disability benefits. Approximately 7,100 disability policies covering approximately 4.9 million lives were outstanding as of December 31, 2008.

Group life insurance products include group term life and group universal life. Group term life insurance may be employer-paid basic life insurance or employee-paid supplemental life insurance. Approximately 6,500 group life insurance policies covering approximately six million lives were outstanding during the year ended December 31, 2008. CIGNA offers personal accident insurance coverage, which consists primarily of accidental death and dismemberment and travel accident insurance to employers. Group accident insurance may be employer-paid or employee-paid. CIGNA also offers specialty insurance services that consist primarily of life, accident and disability insurance to professional associations, financial institutions, schools and participant organizations.

International

The Company’s international operations offer life, accident and supplemental health insurance products and international healthcare products and services. These products and services are provided by subsidiaries of CIGNA, including foreign operating entities. CIGNA International’s life, accident and supplemental health insurance products generally provide affordable coverage of risks for the health and financial security of individuals. CIGNA International’s life, accident and supplemental health insurance operations are located in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, Thailand, and the European Union. CIGNA International’s healthcare operations primarily consist of products and services to meet the needs of multinational companies and their expatriate employees and dependents. These benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability products.

Run-off Reinsurance

Until 2000, CIGNA offered reinsurance coverage for part or all of the risks written by other insurance companies (or cedents) under life and annuity policies (both group and individual); accident policies (personal accident, catastrophe and workers' compensation coverages), and health policies. These products were sold principally in North America and Europe through a small sales force and through intermediaries.

Other Operations

Other Operations consists of non-leveraged and leveraged corporate-owned life insurance; deferred gains recognized from the 1998 sale of the individual life insurance and annuity business and the 2004 sale of the retirement benefits business, and run-off settlement annuity business. The products and services related to these operations are or were offered by subsidiaries of CIGNA. The principal products of the Corporate-owned Life Insurance (COLI) business are permanent insurance contracts sold to corporations to provide coverage on the lives of certain of their employees. The contracts are primarily non-participating universal life policies. The principal services provided by the corporate-owned life insurance business are issuance and administration of the insurance policies, as well as oversight of the investment management for separate account assets that support the variable universal life product.

Investments and Investment Income

CIGNA’s investment operations provide investment management and related services primarily for the Company’s corporate invested assets and the insurance-related invested assets in its General Account (Invested Assets). CIGNA acquires or originates, directly or through intermediaries, various investments, including private placements, public securities, commercial mortgage loans, real estate and short-term investments. CIGNA’s Invested Assets are managed primarily by CIGNA subsidiaries and external managers with whom CIGNA's subsidiaries contract. The Invested Assets comprise a majority of the combined assets of the Health Care, Disability and Life, Other Operations, and Run-off Reinsurance segments (collectively, the Domestic Portfolios). There are, in addition, portfolios containing Invested Assets that consist of the assets of the International segment (collectively, the International Portfolios).