Evernorth Continues Work to Reduce Costs and Improve Health With Expanded and Innovative Digital Health Formulary Platform

BLOOMFIELD, Conn., Oct. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Evernorth, Cigna Corporation's health services segment, is expanding its industry-first Digital Health Formulary with the goal of making it easier for customers and patients, employers, and health plans to navigate the crowded digital health landscape. By evaluating and supporting proven digital health innovations, Evernorth is helping people address their most pressing health care needs faster and more effectively – resulting in improved engagement and better health outcomes at lower costs.

"Today we are announcing the expansion of our ground-breaking Digital Health Formulary to better help people achieve their health goals – whether it is planning a family, managing muscle and joint pain, quitting tobacco products, and even coping with the stress of being a caregiver," said Tim Wentworth, chief executive officer of Evernorth. "We know how confusing, costly, and time consuming it can be for people to choose which digital health tool is right for them. That's why we created the Digital Health Formulary – to take the guesswork out of the equation – and that's why we're moving so quickly to now expand it."

Created in 2019, the Digital Health Formulary features solutions that are evaluated and measured by physicians, pharmacists, and health research scientists for clinical effectiveness. The solutions are also evaluated by user-experience experts to assess usability, scalability, and interoperability.

People using programs on the Digital Health Formulary may also receive support from pharmacists with specialized training to further optimize the potential health benefits of the chosen solution.

In 2021, the Digital Health Formulary will add the following innovations to its industry-leading platform:

• Women's health: Wildflower Health - provides support for family planning, infertility, pregnancy, and post-partum.
• Tobacco cessation: Quit Genius for Tobacco and Vaping Cessation - provides on-demand cognitive behavioral therapy, combination nicotine replacement therapy, and coaching.
• Muscle and joint pain: Hinge Health, Omada MSK by Physera, and RecoveryOne™ - provide on-demand, at home physical therapy, and personalized coaching.
• Caregiver care: Prevail Health™ - helps people maintain emotional well-being and manage the stress of being a caregiver.
• COVID-19 support: Buoy Health - helps employers safely and simply reopen workplace sites amid the pandemic.

These additions complement the more than 15 digital solutions currently available on the Digital Health Formulary platform that aid in the management of eight of the country's most common chronic conditions: diabetes, prediabetes, hypertension, asthma, pulmonary disease, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Data from Express Scripts, a subsidiary of Evernorth, shows these solutions can help improve healthy behaviors and overall health. For example:

• Asthma and COPD patients using digital pulmonary support tools experienced a 47% increase in days without need for their rescue inhalers in 2019.
• People at risk for diabetes using digital prevention and obesity tools tracked nearly 3.5 billion steps in 2019.

"First and foremost, the Digital Health Formulary is focused on creating better individual health outcomes, which is why we offer rigorously evaluated solutions in combination with support from Express Scripts specialist pharmacists," said Mark Bini, chief patient experience officer of Express Scripts. "The added benefit to health plans is the simplicity and affordability we offer by helping navigate the morass of more than 300,000 digital health solutions on the market today, and delivering average plan savings of more than $120,000 per digital solution in alleviated administrative burden alone."

A recent survey shows that half of employers anticipate digital health solutions will have a significant impact on their workforce.

To date, health plans covering more than 20 million Americans offer solutions from the Digital Health Formulary to their members. Plan sponsors can choose to invest in and deploy individual solutions, or may have an opportunity to choose the HealthConnect360™ offering, a unique, advanced analytics engine that integrates biometric data from the digital health solutions with pharmacy, medical, and lab data daily. With this comprehensive view, plans sponsors can identify gaps in care and health opportunities 30 times faster versus using a standalone solution.

For more information about the Evernorth Digital Health Formulary, please visit https://my.express-scripts.com/digital-health-formulary.html

About Evernorth
Evernorth is a new brand for Cigna's growing, high-performing health services portfolio. Beginning in the third quarter of 2020, the Health Services segment will be reported as Evernorth. The Evernorth brand is anchored by Evernorth Health, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cigna Corporation, and the parent company of the Express Scripts, Accredo, and eviCore companies. Evernorth brings together and coordinates premier health services offerings to deliver innovative and flexible solutions for health plans, employers, and government programs. All Evernorth solutions are serviced and provided by or through operating affiliates of Evernorth Health or third-party partners. To learn more about Evernorth, visit https://www.evernorth.com/.

Media Contact:
Justine Sessions
[email protected] 
860-810-6523

SOURCE Evernorth