Cigna: No pay for HACs and never events

Cigna HealthCare announced this month that is has joined the ranks of insurers that will no longer pay for hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) and never events, starting Oct. 1, 2008. Both Aetna and Wellpoint have taken similar positions, as previously reported in this blog.

Cigna's list of events that it will not pay for include the eight conditions that CMS selected to not reimburse, plus "never events," such a surgical procedures that performed on the wrong side, site, body part or patient.

Cigna's press release states that the company will not pay for the events because they are "not medically necessary," and that it will "stop reimbursement for these avoidable conditions when permitted under its hospital contracts," meaning that providers may have a reprieve until their contracts are renegotiated.