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Cigna

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5.3

Overall Score

LAST UPDATED: January 27th, 2024

Though its origins go back to 1792, Cigna was officially founded in 1982 when two companies merged. Since then, the insurance provider has grown worldwide, serving millions of customers in multiple countries.

Consumers considering health insurance companies need to understand the offered health benefit plans, what each policy covers and what it costs.

Is Cigna good?

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Customer Review: AGenes from Eagle Mountain, Utah

"Had insurance through them! I have no complaints. Their coverage was great and decently priced. Love them!"

Cigna has many health benefit plans to choose from. Cigna global health plans are available to independent buyers and businesses whose employees travel or work internationally. Typical health plans offer coverage domestically, so you'll need to get an international health plan if you want coverage abroad.

Positive Cigna reviews on Best Company talk about satisfaction with coverage, claims processing, and doctor networks.

Reviewers that gave Cigna a poor rating had difficulty resolving issues, getting pre-authorization, and getting claims paid. These are common concerns across the industry. Both positive and negative customer experiences are helpful to understand when enrolling in a health plan.

Read Cigna Reviews

In the United States, Cigna offers a wide selection of health insurance plans and several unique qualities. Cigna offers Medicare plans and HSA-compatible plans. It also provides dental and vision insurance plans.

Cigna also has good member resources for patients. If Cigna health insurance is available in your area and you find a quality, affordable plan, it is a good choice.

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The Good

  • Positive Customer Reviews
  • Types of Plans Offered
  • Dental and Vision Coverage
  • Group Plans
  • Supplemental Insurance
  • Member Resources and Perks
  • Helpful Tools
  • Customer Service

Positive Customer Reviews

Best Company has received a good number of positive Cigna health insurance reviews. Reviewers most commonly mention customer service. Claims and coverage are also mentioned in some positive reviews.

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Customer Review: Matthew J. Collin from Stephenville, Texas

"I love everything about this company they have made dealing with medical so easy. There has not been a single time I have had a bad time dealing with them."

Types of Plans Offered

First of all, it's important to note that Cigna is a worldwide company, with customers in 30 countries around the world. No matter what kind of coverage or insurance plan a consumer is looking for, Cigna will probably have a good option available.

Cigna offers a wide selection of insurance policies, including:

  • Medicare (Medicare Advantage plans and Part D)
  • Medigap (Medicare supplement insurance)
  • Health Savings Account (HSA) Compatible Plans (typically high deductible plans)
  • Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) Compatible Plans
  • Health Maintenance Organization Network Plans (HMO)
  • Preferred Provider Organization Network Plans (PPO)
  • International Health Plans

When you enroll in Medicare, you can purchase a Medicare Advantage plan or enroll in Original Medicare (Part A and Part B). Medicare Advantage plans cover the same medical care services that Original Medicare does but are managed by a private insurance carrier instead of the federal government.

If you enroll in Original Medicare, you can purchase a Medigap plan to control your out-of-pocket expenses and a prescription drug plan to cover your medications. Cigna Medicare options can vary by area, so work with the company to learn more.

Cigna health care insurance options also include indemnity plans and international plans. The one type of health plan that Cigna is unclear about providing is short-term insurance (except for short-term disability insurance).

Like other multi-state insurance companies, the availability of specific plans varies by state.

Covered services tend to be pretty similar across traditional plans, like a Cigna PPO and a Cigna HMO. However coverage levels, networks, and cost-sharing rules differ. For example, a PPO network offers more options for choosing doctors. It offers coverage and discounted rates for in- and out-of-network providers.

Additionally, some plans require prior authorization for some health care services before the insurance kicks in to help cover the health care costs. The insurance premiums also vary based on the number of people on the plan and demographic information, like age.

Most of Cigna's individual and family plans include access to telehealth providers so members can quickly get medical advice or be seen by a doctor remotely in non-emergency situations. Many plans include this as a complimentary service, though some do not.

If you're looking for an international health plan, you can purchase one from Cigna. These plans typically cover mental health, cancer treatment, and more. You can also customize these plans to meet your needs.

Dental and Vision Coverage

Cigna also offers individual and family dental and vision coverage as well. There are three types of dental plans to choose from, each of which covers a certain percentage of preventive services, restorative, and major dental work. A Cigna dental care plan is available to individuals and families. However, the terms and costs vary depending on the number of people insured.

  • Cigna Dental Preventive — This plan has no annual maximum and no deductible! As long as your dental work is completed by an in-network dentist, Cigna is responsible only for the costs of preventative work.
  • Cigna Dental 1000 — With this plan, your deductible is either $50 for an individual or $150 for a family. After that, Cigna pays a maximum of $1,000 every year for restorative dental expenses!
  • Cigna Dental 1500 — Deductibles with this plan are the same as the Dental 1000. The difference is that after that deductible, Cigna covers a maximum of $1,500 per year for restorative work. This plan also includes coverage for orthodontia.

While it is difficult to tell whether or not Cigna offers vision insurance that individuals can purchase independently, Cigna does offer plans that employers can offer employees. For more information, you'll need to work with Cigna directly.

Group Plans

Cigna insurance is also available to employers who provide health insurance and other benefits to their employees.

Cigna has a wide range of health plan offerings available to groups with different network structures. This variety makes it easier to find a health plan that works best for your group.

If you need to purchase international health coverage for members of your organization, Cigna also offers a good selection of plans. Its offerings are primarily for groups based in the United States and Canada. You can also find international health plans designed to cover short-term needs, which are ideal for business trips.

Cigna stands out for its international health insurance offerings because it offers plans designed for intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government employees, overseas students, and healthcare travelers.

Supplemental Insurance

Cigna also offers insurance policies for specific conditions, including heart attack, stroke, and cancer. You can also purchase whole life insurance through Cigna. 

Member Resources and Perks

Right away, it's easy to see how Cigna allows you to find an in-network provider, look up coverage, and perform all other basic tasks you need to as a member.

The Cigna website is fairly easy to navigate. Before becoming a member, you can tour the patient portal that Cigna has created for all members. This gets you acquainted with the website and allows you to see what resources you would have as a member.

You can also view the health benefits, coverage, and costs (copayment, deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket expenses, etc.) for plans and get a quote of monthly premiums for the plan you're interested in buying. And if you're interested in international insurance, you can get a quote for that too.

If you decide to register with Cigna, your resources expand even more. You're able to, of course, log into your patient portal and view your personal account information. Just as important, you can check a claim's status, acquire an ID card, find the form you need to download, look up your benefits, and find a doctor that works within Cigna's network (if you haven't already verified this).

Members benefit from a dedicated member customer service line as well, and through what Cigna calls the Health Information Line, members can contact the company 24/7. It's important to note, too, that Cigna provides more than explanations about benefits and forms. They also have sections with information about health care in general, including the changing laws, like the Affordable Care Act, that affect the industry.

Cigna also offers programs to support the health and well-being of its members. The Cigna Healthy Rewards® program offers discounts to members for fitness clubs, nutrition programs, alternative medicine, and more.

Helpful Tools

Cigna is more than one company. It has several subsidiaries that either focus on certain kinds of insurance or serve specific areas.

Cigna offers a good provider network, which makes it easy to find an in-network care provider. Aside from providing a fairly large network, Cigna gives members perks like a home delivery pharmacy and discounts on healthy products. These discounts come through the Cigna Healthy Rewards® program.

Cigna also gives members education about health care. Should your doctor suggest that you need an MRI, a PET scan, or a CT scan, you would benefit from the Informed Choice Program. Through this, Cigna informs you about facilities that would charge you the least amount of money for one of these procedures.

Finally, Cigna offers several apps. For example you can review your account balance, check a claim's status, find doctors and hospitals, and perform other member tasks with the myCigna app.

Customer Service

With millions of customers around the globe, customer service is important to Cigna. Cigna promises live customer service that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. You can contact Cigna via mail, or phone. The mobile apps make communication much more convenient and transparent too. Cigna's company website is intuitive to use overall.

Cigna's contact page lists several phone numbers, but many of these have specific business hours attached to them. That being said, it's great that Cigna can provide 24/7 customer service, but it would do well to make these means easier to find for both members and potential customers.

Overall, it's clear from the company website that Cigna wants its customers to feel informed and to get the best prices. To help customers with this, Cigna offers convenient tools to look up benefits, acquire discounts, and of course search through available health plans.

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The Bad

  • Negative Customer Reviews
  • No Domestic Short-Term Health Insurance

Negative Customer Reviews

Unfortunately, Cigna has received a high percentage of negative reviews. High percentages of negative customer reviews is common with health insurance. However, some competitors have lower percentages of negative customer reviews.

The most common issues mentioned in reviews are issues having services covered, claims payments, and working through issues with customer service. Keep these reviews in mind as you determine whether or not to buy a plan from Cigna.

No Short-Term Insurance

Aside from short-term disability insurance and short-term international insurance, there's no clear mention of Cigna providing short-term health insurance (one health plan that other competitors do provide). These plans are designed to cover basic health services and have more exclusions than Marketplace health plans. They are designed to provide short-term coverage while you wait for a more standard health plan to start. If you're interested in a short-term health plan, you may need to find another insurer.

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The Bottom Line

An insurance plan provides discounts and cost-sharing for medical treatment and care, which can significantly reduce medical expenses.  Review a plan's premium, out-of-pocket expenses, and coverage to determine whether it will be a good fit. Out-of-pocket expenses include copays, the coinsurance percentage, the annual deductible, and annual out-of-pocket max.

Although some Cigna insurance reviews illustrate difficulties with claims, pre-authorization, and resolving issues, these concerns are not unique to Cigna. Those considering Cigna should be aware of these problems, but they may find similar issues with other insurers. 

Overall, Cigna offers a range of health plans and member perks that make it easy to find a plan to meet your needs.

Cigna offers plans that are compatible with HSAs and HRAs. Cigna has HMO and PPO plans, Medicare, and Medigap.

Cigna's network is large, although a customer's access to it depends on the kind of health plan they have. Cost-sharing rules for health care costs also vary based on the benefit plan chosen. Customers can also purchase vision and dental insurance from Cigna.

While it would be nice to have clearer information about their contact points and types of insurance Cigna doesn't offer, it's website still has plenty of resources to help members and potential members be more informed.

The coverage you do get through Cigna will depend on several factors, including your location, health situation, and the amount you want to pay for your monthly premiums. Cigna has search engines that are easy to navigate to discover plan options that are available to you.

Individuals who choose a health insurance plan from Cigna, have access to Cigna's member resources and services. Cigna makes it easy to find a primary care physician, specialized doctors, and other health care professionals. The insurance company also makes it easy to view the claims process and see the explanation of benefits.

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1.9

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341 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

21%

4 grade

15%

3 grade

9%

2 grade

6%

1 grade

49%

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Donna St Louis, MO

tired of insurance companies dictating what doctors deem necessary. i would rather pay a doctor than pay for insurance, too many hoops and phone calls and limits on what is paid!

4 months ago

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Allison Joplin, MO

I’ve had Cigna high option through my employer for over 15 years. I have choices of companies and have stuck with Cigna because my drs are in network. However, they use a 3rd party to process preapprovals (Evcore?) and Informed choices that is literally a company to harass you about what the dr has ordered! They called everyday when I was in the hospital after a liver resection to ask why I was still there and when I thought they’d release me. Still in ICU. I’m convinced I was released entirely to soon which lead to other complications because they called daily to talk to me and nurses. They also take a ridiculous amount of time to approve of dr ordered tests and then call you trying to get you to get the test done at the cheapest place they can find. Even if it’s 60miles away. Took almost 3 weeks to get an mri approved for my sons torn ACL. I had to sign a insurance waiver when I showed up for a CT scan and they were still waiting for approval. I had taken off work and when I called they said “nothing they could do. Should be approved by end of business day”. They call you before every procedure to harass you guaranteed! I’ve blocked the number so I don’t have to talk to them.

4 years ago

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Hannah Pleasant Grove, UT

Unfortunately, all in all, I would not recommend Cigna to anyone. I have had some good experiences, but they are drowned out by the number of poor customer service experiences I've had. And that's only considering the MINIMAL health issues we've had - I can't even imagine trying to deal with them with more rare or expensive health issues. For example, several times that I've called the customer service lines, I've been told I'm number four-hundred-something in the line (like, what?!) and to please wait. Other times, I've gotten someone, but man they are so, so difficult to understand. Other times STILL, I've had requests come to my mailbox for certain information and have complied and sent said info in, only to receive the exact same request a month later. Ugh. Sorry Cigna. You're not cool.

6 years ago

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An ita Fort Worth, TX

Trying to contact Cigna via phone is ridiculous--my average wait time has been about 45 minutes! Additionally, I chose a PCP that was in network and went one time--and was charged my copay AND a "facility fee" because her office happens to be located in an office associated with a hospital. THAT'S BULL. Finally, the choices for providers and for an emergency hospital is extremely limited. In my area, the only in network hospital that I can go to for a non-life threatening emergency is the county hospital.

1 year ago

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adettel Roswell, GA

Cigna health insurance, specifically medical, is not great. What makes them awful are all of their extra 'hoops' and red tape you, the customer, has to go through to get simple things done. They have so many restrictions and processes and 'red tape' customers have to work through just to get the basic needs, let alone more high-value medication and procedures. If you have a choice, I would not recommend using Cigna as it creates more headaches than it's worth.

1 year ago

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BG St Louis, MO

Cigna will approve a procedure, i.e. a cardiac echo, but after the procedure they will find some part of the procedure that they do not cover. They say the doctor wrote the wrong diagnosis for them to approve that part of the echo procedure. We, as patients, have no way to tell what it is when it's happening, so can't tell what we might have to pay for later. Customer service is terrible.

2 years ago

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Linda Lewis Woodland Park, CO

I called to ask if work was going to be covered under 2019 or 2020 benefits, and was told it would be under 2020. After the work was done, they refused to cover it, saying it was under 2019 and my benefit had already been used. I went through ALL of their appeals - which, by the way, are all in-house - and they still refused. If you can't trust the information they give you over the phone, then you can't trust them, period.

3 years ago

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Lyn Phoenix, AZ

Refused to provide electric wheelchair, because a nurse was able to override Rehab Specialist Doctors evaluation. Said because I didn't have a neurological disease I didn't need it. Cigna doesn't care how disabled I am or how many doctors and PT agree I need it. I am now only able to sit in chair at apt. Can't do anything for myself. Just because Cigna is cheap. Will be changing ins as soon as possible. Putting word out on internet.

3 years ago

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Andrea Smith Idaho Falls, ID

We have had Cigna health insurance on three occasions and it has been very difficult every time. Their customer service is terrible and getting an answer to a question requires a million phone calls over several days. Their coverage is not as high as many other providers and many of our coworkers have complained about not being able to reach anyone to get procedures preauthorized. We have had several instances where things were billed incorrectly and each time we spoke to someone who told us it was taken care of, it wasn't and continued to be wrong. The doctors and hospitals have also told us they hate working with Cigna. We always try to avoid having Cigna insurance through our employer.

5 years ago

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G.J. Boise, ID

We no longer have Cigna health insurance. They made it difficult to submit a claim. Their website made no sense it had way to many links that you need to use. The only thing that was good with this company was their customer service. With a lot of help I could kind of get around on their website.

1 year ago

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Bessie B Gilbert, AZ

We had this coverage over 20 years ago and they were horrible even back then. I would never choose them if I had another choice. The was a lot of preapprovals to be able to do anything. They choose the doctors you could see and there was not any consistancy in being able to see the same doctor. I felt the physicians they had very not top quality.

3 years ago

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Brenda Mertes Houston, TX

Cigna charges way too much and ultimately my family has ended up paying for a majority of the tests and procedures that my son has needed. I guess they figure we love paying half a thousand dollars a month for absolutely nothing. I would love to see this company disappear completely. It's as if they figure we just loved taking diagnostic tests and we didn't need the actual help of the insurance company covering it.

4 years ago

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HB

They set a limit on how much needed medication they will pay for a patient in a month. Their rules are rigid, even with a doctor sending them a letter, explaining a covered procedure.

5 years ago

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Michelle W Coraopolis, PA

I feel like the health insurance plans offered to me by my employer from Cigna were not as good as I've had in the past. The high deductible plan was REALLY high, and my normal pills I took daily weren't covered. But the customer service helped me as much as they could and walked me through where I needed to look/go to fix my problems.

4 years ago

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Kaleb Herbert Gilbert, AZ

I am new to Cigna, but it has been very frustrating to try and get answers to costs prior to attending an appointment. I was transferred to 3 different departments and still did not get the answers I needed. I am not happy with the service.

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Gabe Burton Riverton, UT

Never accepted anywhere, will deny payment for things that are obviously covered, or should be covered...like my INSULIN, maybe they should help me with that so I don't DIE. so glad I switched to Aetna.

2 years ago

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Jon Posey Riverton, UT

We just changed to Cigna and I am not impressed. They boast a nationwide network but their network is small unless you pay for a larger one which at that point defeats the purpose

3 years ago

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Connor Farmington, UT

Cigna is rough. They don't cover much and even didn't cover my friend's shattered knee cap. They do cover some things that don't seem medically necessary which is nice.

4 years ago

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Cassidy Lucas Olney, MD

Overall they have never failed me but they can be really hard to get in touch with. I have definitely seen better service.

2 years ago

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HLG American Fork, UT

Like many other insurance companies, I found they were focused on cost rather than care.

5 years ago