Cigna's Rebrand Reflects Changing Health Insurance Industry

Companies that used to be just health insurers have branched out into other healthcare services and are rebranding to reflect that reality.

The latest example is Cigna Corp, which Monday changed its name to The Cigna Group and officially divided its operations into Cigna Healthcare, its insurance arm, and Evernorth Health Services, which includes Express Scripts, one of the three pharmacy benefit managers that dominate that market (along with Optum RX and CVS Caremark).

“The Cigna you know and trust is now Cigna Healthcare, the health benefits division of The Cigna Group,” tweeted the new company. “Our name is evolving, but our commitment to better health for customers, clients and communities remains the same.”

Evernorth didn’t need to tweet anything, since it had already been the brand name of the former Cigna Medical Group since 2020.

advertisement

advertisement

Evernorth, though, recently upped its offerings with Cigna’s $2.5 billion investment in Walgreen-owned primary care provider VillageMD, which itself has just completed its $8.9 billion purchase of Summit Health’s City MD.

Today’s Cigna move comes 10 days after the former Cigna Corp. reported 2022 revenues of $185 billion, with Evernorth contributing the bulk of that -- $140 billion-- and Cigna Healthcare $45 billion.

“Over the last several years, we've built a diverse portfolio of leading capabilities to serve more people across our businesses," Lou Aversano, The Cigna Group's chief brand and marketing officer, said in its announcement. "Now, we are evolving our brand architecture to reflect how we are serving the breadth of our relationships today and into the future."

Cigna’s move follows a rebranding parade of other leading for-profit companies that used to be known just for health insurance.

Perhaps the most radical health insurance company rebranding took place at Anthem, home of Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance brands, which a year ago changed its name to Elevance Health, moved its other healthcare services under the Carelon banner, and also launched Wellpoint as a new insurance brand.

Also last year, Humana rebranded its non-insurance healthcare services to Centerwell.

UnitedHealth began the whole trend back in 2011 when it formed Optum to handle its pharmacy and care delivery services.

Among other leading for-profit health insurers, Aetna is just an insurer but has been owned by CVS Health since 2018.

And Centene recently announced a deal with Cigna/Evernorth’s Express Scripts to manage pharmacy benefits for its members.

Next story loading loading..