MANAGED CARE October 2003. ©MediMedia USA
Cigna has become the second of eight health plans to reach a settlement with about 600,000 physicians over allegations that the insurers delayed or rejected physicians' insurance claims for medically necessary treatments. In agreeing to pay $540 million to settle the class-action lawsuit, Cigna follows the lead of Aetna, which came to a settlement with the physicians in May.... A prescription benefit for Medicare is just what the public ordered, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Sixty percent of 2,043 adults polled said that Congress should enact legislation this year to add a prescription drug benefit to the program — 54 percent of those over 65, and 62 percent of those 18–64.