The itchy memories of a bout with chicken pox will fade, but the virus that causes it lingers on. Later in life, that same virus can manifest again as shingles. Fortunately, there’s a highly effective vaccine available and it’s covered by Cigna pharmacy plans.
At Cigna, plan affordability is always top of mind. Our latest comprehensive drug review and actions span across medical and pharmacy drug utilization to help promote appropriate and cost-effective medication use and expanded choice.
When medication recalls, withdrawals and safety alerts happen, Cigna Pharmacy quickly communicates the latest details. We assess the situation, identify any impacts and determine necessary next steps. Please review this summary of notable recent recalls.
Cigna welcomes and encourages the use of available COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Medical specialty drugs must be administered in a health care setting and are, thus, covered under the medical benefit. They comprise about half of all specialty drugs and make up about 23% of total health care spend.1 As part of our efforts to help manage these costs, effective July 2021, medical specialty drug program enhancements will occur.
As part of our SafeGuardRx® for Cigna program, Cigna provides one-on-one drug adherence counseling and support that’s proven to help lower A1C levels. When engaging with a Cigna coach through this program, 63% of those with an A1C level of 8 or above were able to lower their A1C levels to a goal of less than 8.
Our top priority is to protect the health and well-being of our clients, customers and our employees and their families. We have put together resources, information, and helpful links on Cigna.com to keep you up-to-date and informed.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved three new drugs (Nurtec™ ODT, Reyvow™, and Ubrelvy™) for the acute treatment of migraine headaches and one new drug for the prevention of migraine headaches (Vyepti™).
Vyleesi (bremelanotide) is considered a sexual dysfunction drug and is the first specialty drug in this category. It is the second drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat acquired, generalized hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in premenopausal women.
The issues of opioid misuse and overdose don’t stop, so we won’t stop either. A new outreach effort works to identify and reach out to opioid users with a recently detected medical emergency. Our goal is to help lead them to beneficial resources that might reduce their risk for overdose.
Cigna Health Services Business announces a significant new way we’re advancing healthcare. We are proud to introduce Embarc Benefit ProtectionSM, the industry’s first solution to begin to address the high cost of certain potentially curative gene therapy medicines.
As part of a long-standing commitment to help curb opioid addiction and overdose, Cigna has collaborated with dentists to increase awareness of the dangers of opioids, the greater risk of misuse and addiction among teenagers, and safer non-opioid options to manage acute dental pain.
Drug abuse can become ongoing and compulsive. In fact, it only takes 10 days. With just a 10-day prescription, one in five people have an increased risk of opioid addiction. The Cigna Safe Opioid Starts (SOS) program attempts to help prevent this tough situation from taking root.
In March 2018, Cigna reached its goal of reducing opioid use by 25% among our commercial customer base – one year ahead of schedule. But our work will continue, as we work toward another milestone in reducing overdose among members.
The Coronavirus pandemic continues to tug at our society’s collective mental state with its unrelenting demands: maintaining distance from others, wearing of masks, being more thoughtful than ever before about sanitizing measures, and so on. We recognize that this new and often tiring circumstance calls for increased behavioral health support.
It is one of our ongoing goals to reduce drug spend and improve health. As part of these efforts, we evaluate new biosimilar products individually as they come to market. A biosimilar is a biological product highly similar to an existing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – approved reference product.
On May 24, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec), a new gene replacement therapy. Zolgensma is approved to treat children less than two years of age with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) with bi-allelic mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene, a leading genetic cause of infant mortality.
A first-of-its-kind treatment for patients with peanut allergy is now available. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced approval of Palforzia®, by the manufacturer Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., as of January 31, 2020.
Lyrica is commonly used to treat pain caused by nerve damage due to diabetes, shingles (herpes zoster) infection, fibromyalgia or spinal cord injury. It is also used with other medications to treat certain types of seizures.
As of November 15, 2018, Cigna has removed the prior authorization (PA) requirement for Entresto, a drug used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalizations for patients with chronic heart failure.
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Product availability may vary by location and plan type and is subject to change. All group health insurance policies and health benefit plans contain exclusions and limitations. For costs and details of coverage, review your plan documents or contact a Cigna representative.
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