From Our President,
Keith Dixon, Ph.D., CEO

MORE ON “HEALTH
CARE CONSUMERISM”

One of the fundamental tenets of consumer driven health plans is to provide participants with tools and education to guide them through the practitioner selection process. Unlike most health care modalities, in our line of work, the relationship between the practitioner and the participant is an essential component of treatment efficacy.

At Cigna Behavioral Health (CBH), we know participants choose a practitioner based on many factors, which are determined by the specific needs of each participant. To that end, we have enhanced our provider/ practitioner search tools to help reduce disparities in health care, by allowing participants to search for practitioners based on cultural and linguistic factors, to include: language, age range specialty, gender, topic specialty, and ethnicity. In addition, CBH developed a practitioner self introduction feature that allows a practitioner to create their own introduction and post a picture of them as well.

Recently, CBH was honored by the National Committee for Quality Assurance www.NCQA.org/ for our efforts in matching behavioral practitioners to the cultural and linguistic needs of our participants. CBH’s “Facilitating Cultural and Language Match in Behavioral Care” program began by adding more ethnic practitioners to our network and collecting information to share with our participants. As a result of these efforts, participant satisfaction among African American and other non-Caucasian participants increased significantly. Also, the percentage of participants stating their practitioners met their cultural, linguistic and/or specialty needs improved significantly as well.

Thank you for submitting your voluntary cultural and linguistic information to CBH (www.CignaBehavioral.com). This information has proven meaningful and valuable to the participants we are all trying to serve.

Thank you,
Keith Dixon

 

Do members know who you are?

We offer a Self Introduction page so that our members can get to know you better.

Demographic/
Geographic Updates

Do you need to update your contact numbers, mail and/or email addresses?

Click here to update 

 

Other Resources

We have a host of other resources and/or publications for you to view:
• Monthly eBriefs
• Provider Guide
• Level of Care Guidelines 
• Other Resources

 

Contact us:

11095 Viking Drive
Suite 350
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Telephone: 952.996.2000
Fax: 860.867.7257

ProviderEducationSpecialist@
CignaBehavioral.com

CBH Practitioner Connection
Volume XXIV, 4th Quarter

The right help at the right time!

ASSESSING SUICIDALITY

Any discussion on suicidality assessment is complicated and cannot be justly discussed in a one-page article. This article briefly reviews some important factors and concepts to consider when performing suicidality assessment. Additional discussion on documentation and management will be addressed in a follow-up article

CIGNA WINS AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN MULTICULTURAL HEALTH CARE FROM NCQA

On November 13, 2007, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)* honored Cigna with a “Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care Award” for the company's efforts to match behavioral health providers to the needs of culturally- and linguistically-diverse members. Cigna accepted the award at a luncheon ceremony in Washington as part of NCQA’s conference, Breakthroughs in Reducing Health Care Disparities.

FACILITATING CULTURAL AND LANGUAGE MATCH IN BEHAVIORAL CARE

CBH has achieved significant improvements in access and satisfaction for non-Caucasian participants accessing behavioral services. Through voluntarily collection of network practitioner data on religion, languages spoken, age, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status and disability, and by greatly expanding the number of available practitioners of various ethnic groups, participants are now better able to select a behavioral practitioner who meets their needs and preferences.

INSURANCE IDENTIFICATION CARDS

Insurance Identification (ID) Cards can provide to practitioners a wealth of information regarding a participant’s benefits. It is recommended that practitioners keep a copy of the ID card, front and back, in the participant’s file.

INCREASING CBH REFERRRALS

Practitioners can enhance the number and type of referrals they receive by ensuring that their demographic/specialty information is accurate, or by adding special services to their profile.

MEET THE EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE CONSULTANT TEAM

CBH's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides valuable assistance to our customers in dealing with the wide variety of issues impacting the health and productivity of their employees. Through a team of Employee Assistance Consultants (EACs), CBH offers guidance and support to all levels of management calling to review an employee’s workplace issues.

PRACTITIONER SELF INTRODUCTIONS

As CBH continues to focus on consumer support, we have created and enhanced several resources that can assist participants in making the best behavioral healthcare choices. Practitioner Self-Introduction (PSI) is one of our most effective implementations. PSI helps participants by giving them information about practitioners and their practice beyond basic demographics.

ONLINE COACHING PROGRAM

CBH's Online Coaching Program is available 24/7 at no extra cost to the entire CBH book of business. Online coaching services are intended to complement face-to-face counseling by enhancing the participant’s ability to resolve behavioral issues. Once a participant completes any of the six Online Coaching modules, an online survey helps us assess the effectiveness of the program. Survey results indicate the programs are indeed helpful, and that the positive experience with behavioral change technologies may encourage participants to participate in further treatment with practitioners.

HEALTH INFORMATION RATED POSITIVELY

When supporting consumer health care decision-making with education materials, it is critical to assure that information provided to consumers is both useful and understandable. CBH is encouraged by survey findings that participants who use them assign high ratings to our participant education materials.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Read the latest announcements on the Medical Management Program (formerly known as The Provider Guide), updating billing information, EAP specialty recruitment, and more!

"Cigna" and "Cigna HealthCare" are registered service marks of Cigna Intellectual Property, Inc., licensed for use by operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation.” Products and services are provided by these operating subsidiaries and not by Cigna Corporation. These operating subsidiaries include Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Tel-Drug, Inc. and its affiliates, Cigna Behavioral Health, Inc., Cigna Health Management, Inc., and HMO or service company subsidiaries of Cigna Health Corporation and Cigna Dental Health, Inc. In Arizona, HMO plans are offered by Cigna HealthCare of Arizona, Inc. In California, HMO plans are offered by Cigna HealthCare of California, Inc. In Connecticut, HMO plans are offered by Cigna HealthCare of Connecticut, Inc. In Virginia, HMO plans are offered by Cigna HealthCare Mid-Atlantic, Inc. In North Carolina, HMO plans are offered by Cigna HealthCare of North Carolina, Inc. All other medical plans in these states are insured or administered by Connecticut General Life Insurance Company.

808353 10/07 ©2007 Cigna