History
Cigna was formed by the 1982 merger of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG) and INA Corporation (the parent corporation of Insurance Company of North America, the first stock insurance company in America).[7] The company name, Cigna, is a mix of letters from the merging companies, CG and INA.[8] Insurance Company of North America was formed in 1792, while CG was created in 1865 by a special act of the Governor of Connecticut. In October 1871, the great Chicago Fire burned for two days, destroyed 2,000 acres, and left 100,000 people in Illinois homeless. INA paid $650,000, one of only 51 insurance companies (out of a total of 202) to pay claims in full.[9]
Cigna sold the majority of its life insurance operations to Lincoln National Corporation in 1997.[10][11]
In October 2011, Cigna agreed to buy HealthSpring Inc. for $3.8 billion to jump-start its business selling Medicare plans from 46,000 Medicare Advantage members to almost 400,000 Medicare Advantage members.[12] The payment would come from an issue of new equity to cover about 20 percent of the value, with the rest funded by additional cash and debt.[13][14] In 2013, Cigna operated in 30 countries, had approximately 35,800 employees and managed around US$53.734 billion in assets.[15]
In June 2015, U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc. announced that it would acquire Cigna for $47 billion in cash and stock.[16] Anthem confirmed it had reached a deal to buy Cigna on July 24, 2015.[17] On July 21, 2016, the US Justice Department filed an antitrust suit to block the proposed merger,[18] and a District Court ruling on February 8, 2017, blocked the merger on anticompetitive grounds.[19] That month, Cigna Corp. called off its $48 billion merger agreement with Anthem Inc., with Anthem stating it would "continue to enforce its rights under the merger agreement and remains committed to closing the transaction."[20] After exhausting federal appeals of the antitrust merger block, the companies turned on each other in Delaware's Court of Chancery.[21] The legal saga came to an end with an August 31, 2020 decision denying both companies claims for compensation from the other for the failed merger.[22]
On March 7, 2018, it was announced that Cigna would acquire Express Scripts in a $67 billion deal[23][24] and on August 24, 2018, the shareholders of Cigna and Express Scripts approved the deal.[25]
In June 2020, Cigna formed a strategic alliance with Priority Health to make comprehensive health care coverage more affordable and accessible to Michigan employers and customers.[26] In September 2020, Cigna rebranded its health services portfolio under the name Evernorth, which included Express Scripts, Accredo, and eviCore.[27] In October 2020, it was announced that Cigna and Envision Healthcare had renewed their agreement to include Envision's clinicians as in-network providers for Cigna's members.[28] In 2021, Molina Healthcare acquired Cigna's Medicaid contracts in Texas for US$60 million.[29][30] On February 13, 2023, Cigna renamed its holding company The Cigna Group, its health benefits provider business unit Cigna Healthcare, and its Evernorth business unit Evernorth Health Services.[31]
In January 2024, the company agreed with the Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) to sell Cigna Group's Medicare Advantage, Cigna Supplemental Benefits, Medicare Part D, and CareAllies businesses. The total value of the transaction is about $3.7 billion. The deal also included a four-year service agreement under which Evernorth Health Services, a subsidiary of the Cigna Group, will continue to provide pharmacy benefits to Medicare beneficiaries. The deal closed on March 19, 2025.[32][33]
On 8 July 2025, HCSC announced that its newly acquired Cigna Medicare Advantage products will be renamed Healthspring, which was a dormant brand name acquired as part of HCSC deal with the Cigna Group. A logo and website for the newly revived Healthspring brand have already been launched by HCSC, which now owns Healthspring.
