CIGNA HealthCare HRA Now Available to Texas Small Businesses

CIGNA HealthCare announced it is expanding the availability of its consumer-driven CIGNA Choice Fund Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) plans to businesses with 51-200 employees in Texas. The plan is also available in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.

The CIGNA Choice Fund HRA had previously been available only to employers with more than 200 employees. CIGNA is offering the expanded availability beginning in April for plans that take effect on or after June 1, 2006. With this expansion, customers in these markets will have now have access to the full suite of CIGNA Choice Fund HRA and HSA plan designs.

CIGNA recently announced the results of one of the largest and most comprehensive national analysis of consumer-driven health plans conducted to date. In this study of first-time users of consumer-driven health plans CIGNA found these consumers generated an eight percent reduction in medical costs while making positive changes in health behavior, such as increasing their use of medications to treat chronic health care conditions.

The CIGNA Choice Fund HRA fully integrates an employer-funded health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) with an Open Access Plus medical product. With an HRA, only the employer sets aside funds for the account portion of the plan, making the plan simpler for some smaller employers to administer.

The company said consumer driven health plans can help employers manage costs by encouraging employees to be more engaged in their health care decisions.

To introduce its new plans to employees, CIGNA HealthCare offers communication and enrollment assistance to help employees learn about their benefit choices and get the most out of their health plan.

Source: CIGNA HealthCare