Cigna launches SmartCare for UAE businesses
Cigna Insurance Middle East has launched its new region-specific health insurance offering, SmartCare by Cigna. It introduces unique solutions, such as a differentiated ‘open access network’ that allows members direct billing access to any UAE network provider, subject to a tier specific coinsurance.
Cigna’s recent COVID-19 survey discovered that 68 percent of employees suffer from work related stress. The study also revealed that there is a continuing gap between employee expectations from their health cover and what is offered to them in the workplace. Health and well-being remain a priority for employees with 74 percent seeking enhanced health cover but only 28 percent actually receiving it.
Such insights, along with insights from some of the UAE’s leading health insurance advisors went into developing SmartCare. Providing flexible plans using a unique open access network, high annualized maximums and a wide-ranging health cover that includes chronic and pre-existing conditions, regular health check-ups and pandemic coverage, SmartCare brings much-needed clarity to a cluttered insurance market to make healthcare affordable and accessible, according to a statement from the company.
The new product provides members access-to-care across a wide list of network providers, and is supplemented with services such as Employee Assistance Programs, Telehealth, Clinical Care for critical illness, Pandemic inclusions and Mental Health solutions, which are integral to Cigna’s offering.
SmartCare leverages digital tools such as HealthHub Suite, an integrated health solutions platform, that uses digital technology to simplify access to healthcare, including enabling members to book an appointment with leading healthcare providers in the UAE via a mobile application, and the Cigna Body & Mind App, a personalized tool focused on improving a customer’s physical, mental and emotional well-being.
With strong telehealth capabilities, SmartCare offers customers free access to locally licensed physicians 24/7, through the mobile app, making it easier for employees to receive access to care at no charge to them.
Jerome Droesch, CEO of Cigna MEA and SEA, said: “As part of our ongoing market research prior to and during the pandemic in 2020 to understand customer needs, we realized that affordable healthcare solutions with service excellence attached still remain elusive and are much in demand. We also understood that tweaking existing solutions will not address this gap or support businesses as they learn to cope with ever changing market demands. Launching a flexible and affordable product at this critical time as the world struggles with post-pandemic recovery, demonstrates our commitment to enhancing the health of the region and bringing to market convenient and efficient solutions that are the need of the hour.”
Designed for the region and created for SMEs, corporates and government organizations within the UAE, SmartCare is aligned with Cigna’s commitment to bringing simple and affordable solutions to market.
