CIGNA Health Insurance Company of Arizona is a solid choice for those looking for affordable AZ health insurance coverage. Perhaps not as well known as many other health care companies, CIGNA has been around since the year 1792 when the Insurance Company of North America (INA) was formed by a group of citizens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company started offering health insurance when they acquired the HMO network of Los Angeles in 1978. A year later the company acquired HMO’s in Phoenix, Arizona and in Dallas, Texas. In 1982 the company became known as CIGNA when INA and Connecticut General Insurance Corporation combined.

Nowadays CIGNA has continued to grow in every state they offer coverage in, and the state of Arizona is not an exception. CIGNA covers about 500,000 members in the state of Arizona alone through their Arizona Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) network, their Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) network and their AZ Health Savings Accounts plans, not to mention that numbers continue to grow. The largest coverage area within the state is Phoenix where an estimated 150,000 members are located and the company has over 20 offices in the metro area of this city.

Based within the state in the city of Phoenix because is the largest member area within the state as discussed before, the company offers their benefits to residents of the following counties: Apache, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal, Yavapai and Yuma. Apart from the network of plans listed above they offer Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid and Point of Service (POS) plans. Although the company itself is not a major insurance company within the United States, it has continued to grow and experts predict that it will continue its progress through 2008. With only 5 states where it offers coverage (Tennessee and Florida being the ones where it has expanded the most), it’s only expected that the company continue to expand across America.

Within Arizona, CIGNA offers only one plan that is good for the general person that is looking for a well-developed, low-cost and comprehensive coverage Arizona health insurance plan. The plan itself is available to individuals that are 18 years of age or older, families with children up to 18 years of age or 23 if the son/daughter is a full time student and children without an adult subscriber who are at least 3 months of age. In order for you to receive coverage, the company asks that a person resides within one of the service areas for at least 9 months or more, unfortunately if you recently move to a service area you must wait the specified amount of time for you to be able to purchase a CIGNA plan.

The service areas within Arizona are divided into two. The Phoenix service area incorporates the counties of Maricopa and the city of Apache Junction. On the other hand the Tucson and Southern Arizona service area covers the counties of Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.

The good thing about this one CIGNA AZ plan is that it covers everything one can think of when it comes to health care. For primary care physician (PCP) services a member must pay $25 with no limit on visits through the calendar year. For specialists they are required to pay a little bit higher ($50) but like PCP visits, there is not a limit on visits. Other services that are covered by the plan for which a member won’t have to pay a single cent are lab and x-rays and blood pressure checks.

The prescription coverage side of the policy is divided into three tiers like many other insurance companies do. For generic drugs a person should be expected to pay $15, for brand name medications they should expect to pay $40 and for specially drugs they are expected to pay up to $60 dollars. The emergency care fee is $150, however there are special places within the Arizona service areas that are sponsored by the company called CIGNA Medical Group Urgent Care , that a member can go to in order to avoid the emergency room fee. In this group urgent care facilities, a member will only have to pay $75.

The coverage for Inpatient Care holds a $1,000 year deductible for individual and a $3,000 year deductible pre family. After you have met the deductible you will only be required to pay a 20% co-insurance. For Outpatient Care the member has the same deductibles and the same 20% co-insurance after the deductible has been met. The only difference is that in outpatient every diagnostic test or x-ray such as a CT, MRI, MRA or PET would include $100 copayment.

Other important things that the plan offers include chiropractor services for $50 a visit (a limit of 12 visits per calendar year), maternity care in which you wont have to pay anything for prenatal and post-partum exams, but at the time of delivery a 20% co-insurance is applied. Vision coverage is also worth mentioning, you will pay $30 for one exam per calendar year at a CIGNA vision center. It is important to note that if you have an eye exam somewhere else, you will be charged full price for it.

Family planning services are also covered, although infertility treatment is left out of the equation and you would have to go somewhere else for that. The plan also offers short term rehabilitation, mental health services, substance abuse services and detox services. Out-of-pocket maximums for this plan are $3,000 for individual and $10,000 for family and the lifetime benefit is unlimited. This last part means that if you reach the out-of-pocket maximum within a calendar year you will not be cut off coverage.

By: James J. Robinson