David Cordani, Cigna president and CEO, sees telehealth and home-care as the most defining aspect of the future of healthcare. The industry leader believes it is “AAA in win-win-win”. He also does not rule out the possibility of larger companies acquiring the smaller ones that have recently flooded the market, saying it’s all about who creates the most value.
- Cigna recently purchased MDlive, indicating the company’s interest in telehealth. “So when we think about telehealth, our view has been for quite some time that with the evolution of technology and consumer preference, there’s a significant opportunity to bring care closer to the individual. So, put the individual at the centre. Telehealth is one dimension. Coordinated in home care is another dimension from that standpoint. As it relates to telehealth today while it’s growing multiplicatively, it’s still largely, in urgent care and more simple primary care interaction. We think that will continue. We think it will evolve to comprehensive primary care. We’ve actually innovated some services around that in our medical group out in Arizona that we own a medical group from that standpoint,” said Cordani, in an interview to Yahoo Finance.
- He also believes that telehealth will play a significant role in chronic care as well. He added, “Then you go to chronic care, where almost half of all Americans have one chronic condition. And then you have the ability to evolve into complex chronic care from that standpoint. So we see virtual care and coordinated in-home care as a big part of the future of healthcare. It’s highly personalized, high clinical quality, the ability to close gaps in care, and high levels of affordability come through that. So we see it as AAA in win-win-win that starts with the consumer or patient and delivers significant value.”
- Cordani stresses that personalised and affordable cost is the key for the mushrooming telehealth companies and those offering these services will survive in the long run. When asked if big companies will take over the new smaller telehealth companies, he said, “Ultimately, it’s going to come down to who could create the most value, and value in this case being for the patient or individual. Is it personalized? Is it simplified? Is access highly coordinated? Is clinical quality positive? And is it an affordable solution? That’s the power where we see it. So to do that, beyond urgent care, or simple primary care, you need world-class behavior health capabilities. We have that. You need world-class pharmacy capabilities. We have that. You need world-class specialty pharmacy capabilities. We have that.”
- He goes on to say that for Cigna, “we also see it working as a complementary aspect of our physician relationships around the United States, not in conflict. Meaning it’s an extender of your physician relationship and we have over 700 collaborative accountable care relationships there. I think you’ll see a variety of models unfold. Our model will be a highly coordinated one. It will be done in concert with and complimentary to someone’s practicing physician or primary physician. It will leverage those capabilities I talked about. Our team is quite excited about the ability to deliver significantly more value for the tens and tens and tens of millions of individuals we serve everyday in the US.”