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Broker partners,
We’d like to share some information regarding an important The Cigna Group (“Cigna”) strategic initiative designed to better serve our Medicare population, which is slated to begin this month, March 2024.
What it is
Cigna Healthcare Supplemental Benefits (CSB) will transfer one of our Cigna affiliates’ Medicare-specific business to another Cigna affiliate that exclusively serves Medicare populations. This initiative will impact our policyholder and broker communities.
Specifically, Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company (CHLIC) will be replaced by Medco Containment Life Insurance Company (MCLIC) as the insurer of their Medicare Supplement insurance policies. Accordingly, we will transfer policyholders who consent to the transition from CHLIC to MCLIC. MCLIC will contain rights, features, services, and obligations identical to those of CHLIC. There will be no interruption to service or provider availability.
For simple and consistent reference, we’ll call this process the "CHLIC transition" or "transition" in communications and materials directed to policyholders (our mutual customers) and to you. "We" will refer to CSB.
What it entails
For the transition to occur, we must notify CHLIC Medicare Supplement insurance policyholders and obtain their consent to transfer their policy to MCLIC. This impacts policyholders in states where CHLIC is or was previously sold.
Accordingly, this is a lengthy process - so you and our policyholders may see communications on this initiative over the course of a year or more.
Impact to policyholders
We will mail Notice of Transfer packets to policyholders, providing information about and how to consent to the transfer.
Consent requirements vary by state. You will receive notice emails detailing each state’s requirements in advance of Notice of Transfer packet mailings to policyholders. Additionally, we will post sample state Notice of Transfer packets on a CHLIC Transition Broker Resource page (link provided below), as well as a concise table of consent requirements for each state.
Please note:
- Policyholder consent requirements are based on applicable regulations for the state of residence (vs. the state of policy issuance), to afford consumer protections of that state regarding consent to the transfer.
- You may not provide consent on behalf of a policyholder but may encourage them to review their packet and return their consent response to ensure that it is recorded.
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There will be no interruption to service or changes in policy terms.
When a policyholder’s consent response is received, we will store it and move their policy into a transfer queue. Once a policy has transferred from CHLIC to MCLIC, the policyholder will receive a Certificate of Assumption as a record of the transfer, and a new MCLIC ID card.
Consent processing times may vary - watch for updates as referenced below.
Impact to you
Regarding existing CHLIC policies:
For CHLIC policyholders who reside in states where CHLIC is or was previously sold, their policies will transfer to MCLIC once we have their consent on record. We will maintain all Agent of Record information with those policies, so this aspect of the CHLIC transition should be of minimal impact to you.
Regarding new sales:
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States not actively selling CHLIC: In states where CHLIC was previously available for sale but is no longer, there is no impact to you.
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States actively selling CHLIC: In states where CHLIC is currently available for sale, we are required to discontinue sales once we begin the formal transition in each state.
- We will make new Medicare Supplement insurance options available in these states and will communicate product details, including commissions, trainings and other pertinent information through our standard announcement emails.
- Formal CHLIC discontinuance dates and the ready-to-sell date for the new options will also be communicated for each state once dates are finalized.
Resources
To assist you during this process, we will provide the following:
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State-specific CHLIC transition notice emails prior to policyholder Notice of Transfer mailings in each state (note: states with identical transition dates, consent requirements and active/inactive CHLIC sales status may be combined in one notice).
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A CHLIC transition broker information resource page linked in all emails, including FAQs (such as updates on consent processing times), sample state Notice of Transfer packets, and live and on-demand trainings to help you understand how this impacts you and how to guide customer-policyholders when they have questions. This page is linked here and below - we encourage you to bookmark/Favorite this page for easy access, as it will be refreshed with pertinent information, as necessary.
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Live Trainings take place this week (March 7 & 8) and next (March 11 & 12) and are linked below.
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The ARC is available to assist with your questions at the number below.
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A dedicated phone line is available for CHLIC policyholders (888-300-3713).
We understand that a change of this nature and scope can bring up many questions and concerns. Our goal is to make this transition as simple as possible for you and our mutual customers. Please reach out to the ARC with any questions you have throughout the transition.
As always, we value and thank you for your partnership.
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