Customer Review - Cigna

Ironic, Ignorant and Impossible

Those are the three best words to describe Cigna from my own personal experience. I was diagnosed with Crohns disease and degenerative disc disease about 4-5 yrs ago. I take my medication like I'm supposed to (which is pretty harsh and has it's own set of side effects) and usually had no serious problems, aside from terrible pain. The illnesses would hit me out of nowhere, but usually I was able to bounce back. This latest time, however, left me unable to work, losing extreme amounts of weight, hardly able to walk because of nerve root impingement on my siatic nerve, constantly vomiting and fecally incontenant. My case manager, who I should name, so anyone who gets her can run away screaming, seemed very nice and helpful at first, however upon receiving my physician's statement, she failed to call me when she needed him to fill out additional information. This greatly delayed my claim moving through the process. After calling to check my status, she informed me that she needed more info. I immediately called my Dr. and requested that he fill out the paperwork again, and not miss any sections. I called my rep and she confirmed she received it and said she would be making a decision to extend it that very day. Again, I think everything is okay. After not hearing anything back from her, and not seeing the approval on mycigna.com, I called to see what the status was, only to be told that now she needs the office visit notes! It would have been done already if she would have said that the first time. I called the Dr. again and they faxed it over to my Cigna rep. This was on a Thursday. I told her that if my employer didn't receive the approval for the extension by Monday at 11, it would affect me getting a paycheck, she said she would work on it as soon as she got it, so it didn't mess up my pay. I called Friday to see if she had made any progress, but no answer. I left about three messages on Friday, then Monday began calling again. I continued to call Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, steadily getting more frustrated of her lack of commitment. She called Thursday evening at 7 CST to tell me she had not received the fax of the office notes!!!!!!!! I called the Dr. office as soon as they opened Friday morning (8) and they faxed it again. I called her to confirm she had it and she said she did and she was going to review it with the nurse and she would call me back around lunchtime. Again, I waited around for her call that never came. Finally around 3:30 pm I called her and she stated that she had the decision ready, and that it was she needed MORE INFORMATION FROM MY DR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she said they were unable to read the information that my Dr. wrote! Usually it takes quite a bit to tick me off, but this is just so wrong. I feel like there is nothing I can do about it, and my very livelihood is in someone else's hands. It has been over 3 weeks since I have received a paycheck, and I have a 6 yr old daughter to take care of, and bills that have to be paid. Because she didn't call me this morning to tell me she couldn't read it, it is now too late to call the Dr. office for them to re-send and it's going to have to wait until Monday. I am beyond upset, frustrated and worried to death. On their website, Cigna claims to have excellent customer service! How ironic...They claim that their case managers are focused on walking you through every step of the way, so you can relax and focus on getting better!!!!! What a complete crock that statement turned out to be! I am so stressed out over all of this, and worried about my bills getting paid, that it is greatly exacerbating my symptoms, and making me feel worse. I STRONGLY advise any sane person to NEVER use this corporation and if you are an employer, take it from me, this has affected me so negatively, I will never ever work for a company that carries Cigna disability again. I will be sure to tell everyone how careless and uncaring my case manager is. Of course there is no urgency to her, she is still getting paid! Me on the other had, (who has worked since 14, and never ever had to be on disability before) is stuck here praying to the Almighty Lord that something happens and I can continue to keep my lights on.