Cigna

Healthcare goes mobile

By Erica Rascón on May 7, 2014 in Technology

Yardi client, Cigna, stepped up to an exciting challenge this year. Through innovation, creativity, and an understanding of client’s needs, the global company has brought healthcare into the mobile age. Cigna’s exciting apps and personalized services have made healthcare more accessible to clients on the go.

The company started at the foundation, altering clients’ perception of healthcare. Through its mobile campaign, Cigna is no longer a name that we think of only when we were sick and injured. Rather, Cigna strives to become a name that we associate with health, wellbeing, and independence.

Rebranding gained public attention through the Go You campaign last year, a series of ads and commercials that focused on individuals and what they can accomplish as healthy people. The ads don’t refer to illness or injury. Instead, the ads take a health-is-wealth approach that shows subjects full of personality, originality, and possibility. Viewers could begin to see the company as a way to fulfill their personal potential and reach their goals.

But how? The ads were followed by the introduction of several user-friendly apps that make health an everyday commitment involving small daily decisions. The myCigna Mobile App was one of the first, offering traditional resources such as a physicians directory and account management tools. Users also gained access to claim updates, drug information and comparison charts, and price comparisons.

While myCigna Mobile is customized for clients’ accounts, the GO YOU app is available to everyone with an Android or iOS device. Non-clients and clients alike can now peruse thousands of helpful and encouraging resources. These tools can be shared instantly with friends and family. Users can also create edifying video messages, photos and banners about health and wellness.

For making healthy dietary decisions on the go, Cigna created Everyday Health Values. It’s a frequently updated coupon database where users can identify healthier alternatives to popular foods while they are shopping. The database compiles coupons for these healthy choices, making it more affordable for families to make health-conscious selections.

Cigna then joined forces with Social Wellth to produce the Go You Cigna Marketplace app. The marketplace lines up several reputable balanced living apps such as nutrition trackers, workout pals, and diabetes management companions.  Apps are rated based on effectiveness and the ability to engage users so it’s easy for clients to find the perfect match.

While informative apps take center stage, some Cigna apps are simply fun and games—on the surface. Re-mission 2 is an app designed for teens and young adults who are battling cancer. Youth can work their way through six games designed by HopeLab. The game’s “missions” mimic real-world medical treatments to demonstrate how immune cells, chemotherapy, and antibiotics serve in the fight against cancer. In the process of playing, users improve “positive emotions, increases self-efficacy (their belief in their ability to fight cancer) and shifts attitudes about chemotherapy.” Research demonstrates that these factors “lead to better adherence to prescribed treatments.”

While 2013 was a year of significant innovations, Cigna isn’t ready to rest on its laurels. This year, customers are able to enjoy MDLIVE. Few services are more mobile than having a doctor with you 24/7. That’s why Cigna has chosen to connect clients to physicians that are state-licensed, U.S. Board Certified, and in compliance with national credentialing guidelines.  The average MDLIVE physician has 15 years of practical experience. With an average wait time of less than 15 minutes, it’s much faster than a trip to the hospital or clinic. Users can get medical advice without a commute, no copay, and zero waiting room drama. It’s the ideal answer for nonmedical emergencies that are too serious for a Google search but not serious enough for a trip to the ER.

Have you experimented with any of Cigna’s new mobile innovations? What are your thoughts?