1. I would hope it would. Here is another example. What if everyone on twitter changed their avatars every Friday? How much money could we raise to fight cancer? Check it out Jason and let us know what you think. I still remember when you presented at our Media Conference about two years ago.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/21/can-you-spare-the-odd-pea-for-a-good-cause/

Posted at 3:07PM on Dec 21st 2007 by David Neff

2. Jason, funny you should write this - it's what company I now work at does. It's getting a bunch of people together to affect change, but not just the "company x sucks" but an action followed by the sucks.

So, if Cigna sucks - and x number of people agree and sign up on a campaign on The Point, if you reach a tipping point, you all spring into some sort of action (decided by the organizer of the campaign).

Posted at 4:16PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Jeremy Pepper

3. This is a terribly sad story yet enraging at the same time. Do you want to become more enraged? Type "cigna" into Google. Then look at the title for Cigna's search engine result. Yes, it says "CIGNA - A Business of Caring". IMO,it should read "CIGNA - A Business of Caring Only If Profitable" I don't see how Cigna executives can look at themselves in the mirror after this.

Posted at 4:27PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Shiva Suresh

4. @jeremy: I saw Jason's post, Jeremy, and came over here to pimp your company. You beat me to it. Good job.

@jason: you should try out thePoint.com on this. Goals oriented petitioning. Just wrote about it on Mashable yesterday. I was very impressed.

Posted at 4:55PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

5. Jason, you are on fire lately. Really. I forgot we met online because we both disliked a few things about AOL...this brought it back to me.

Jeremy (and Jason):

"2. Jason, funny you should write this - it's what company I now work at does. It's getting a bunch of people together to affect change, but not just the "company x sucks" but an action followed by the sucks.

So, if Cigna sucks - and x number of people agree and sign up on a campaign on The Point, if you reach a tipping point, you all spring into some sort of action (decided by the organizer of the campaign)."

I can tell you from experience an "Anything Sucks" page, no matter how many of them there are about any one company, can make a difference in opinion, but it cannot make any kind of impact compared to following up with direct action. Any kind of action, really, as long as that action is directed at solving the problem. Am I criticizing the very thing I do then? Yes, mildly. I've always wished I could follow up my words with actions that helped make the changes that are needed. As one person, I could never do that.

So, will I put up a CIGNA sucks page somewhere? I'll think about it...but I'm an activist at heart...so I wish there were a more concrete and effective way to actually get the problem solved. But nothing anyone says or does now can bring her back.

Posted at 6:29PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Marah Marie

6. @Marah - that's the Point of The Point. It's collective action, it's people getting together for a collective voice that is stronger than just one voice alone.

Posted at 6:36PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Jeremy Pepper

7. This was a real unfortunate situation that happens on paper frequently. Companies that we give our money to for certain services rarely deliver when we need it. This latest incident is even more horrible because of a lost life, but I'm sure Unfortunate people are abused by the system to this extent everyday. Hopefully other companies will get the message too...

Posted at 9:46PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Anthony Farrior

8. Jason;

I just picked up this from Greywolf and came over. It is a tragic event, athough probably way too frequent. I will be posting some and sending some link love to support this one.

I hope 10,000 blogs also jump on this.

best

Eric Blackwell.

Posted at 11:22PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Eric Blackwell

9. @ Jeremy:

Checked out the site; I like it, will be looking into it more in the future. In fact, I wish I had known about it a long time ago.

@ Jason:

Hope you will update with whatever you decide to do/any news on how CIGNA handles the fallout...

Oh, and G shows 779 pages for "cigna sucks" on an exact search; Yahoo! shows 221. (It's on Facebook too - yeah, wonder why).

Posted at 2:51AM on Dec 23rd 2007 by Marah Marie

10. To me, this is like the story of the month. And it's nowhere to be found on CNN. When I first read about Nataline off a Yahoo homepage link, I literally spent the next hour writing about it to my senators and representatives; I was enraged. I've never done that before.

I don't have any idea what to do to protest the broken health care system aside from choosing to be uninsured. Is there charity or a non-profit or group that goes after these bastards? I want to be a part of one.

Posted at 4:43AM on Dec 23rd 2007 by Nate

11. First, great idea! A blog campaign idea is a good idea no matter what.

Second, we need to recognize that it's only start.

The underlying problem is systemic, a political solution is required. What if we elected a president who is experienced at taking on these bastards? What if we elected a trial lawyer is practiced at taking on the insurance companies -- and winning?

http://themakzan.blogspot.com/2007/12/cigna-health-insurance-policy-worse.html

Posted at 9:54PM on Dec 24th 2007 by Jotman

12. John Edwards can fix this, so there will be no more people like us:

CIGNA LUNG CANCER VICTIM-SAYS: They were going to let me die.

I was a victim of Cigna Health Insurance in one of their 29 wholly owned California Clinics where they employed the doctors.

I was only 42 years old a mother of four children with the youngest being five years old, when I first got sick.

I got very ill and Cignas plan for me was to let me die.

Cigna tried to convince me I was well. I suffered and there are no words that will ever describe my suffering, or the devestation to my family,that CIGNAS actions caused.

After I demanded a Cat Scan
On 8/17/1994 the Cigna Director called me at home,at 10.00pm at night on 8/18/ 1994 and told me there was nothing wrong with me, she documented that phone call in her progression notes.

When I demanded in that phone call that I needed to have all my xrays and my Cat Scan, and I needed to see a real Doctor not a CIGNA doctor any more.

Ill bet she was sweating then, she did let me get an appointment with a specialist, that she made not my choosing. However neither the specialist nor Cigna Medical Director told me I had Lung Cancer.

Rather Dr Barnes then documented in her notes that she had spoken with the specialist and that although I had a Tumor in my "Left Lung" "she wrote", I was not according to the specialist either a Candidate for surgery, nor was I a Candidate for follow up, because of the location of the Tumor.

In other words let her just quietly die and do not tell her, she does not need to know anything.

I then demanded all my xrays and Cat Scan. They told me these were lost, and that is a whole other story how I got these, but when I did: I called up a non CIGNA doctor and begged him to see me at 9.00 at night,( even though when I picked these all up from Cigna earlier that day they told me I was well and nothing was wrong with me).

The Doctor told me to come and meet him at the local hospital, and I will be forever thankful to him, in fact he has a picture of me framed in his office with the newspaper article that followed, when I went to the Newspapers in my fight to live}.

The non Cigna doctor examined all the xrays, and advised me I had Lung Cancer. He stated this was evident on all the Cigna xrays for two years, and that Cigna knew this all this time, that is why they told me my xrays were lost.

This Doctor advised immediate surgery for the removal of this Tumor, or Cat Scanning every 60 days.

I had the operation after I went to an outside surgeon, and he said this 11/2-2centimeter tumor needed to be removed immediately.

The pathology found the Tumor was fully grown fully mature, in addition twelve lymph nodes were removed.

Truely it would take a book, or a movie to tell my whole story, how I fought to live.

I had to go to the Newspapers, as thereafter they lied and told me the Tumor was benign and all I would need would be a follow up XRAY, Dr Barnes documented that in her progression notes as well.

Wait for this:

All the time I had a very rare form of Lung Cancer that was malignant, and needed a lot of follow up care, that is when I went to the Newspapers, as Cigna would not return my phone calls, in my fight to live.

CALLED IN GOT NO ANSWER(CIGNA)

Thereafter CIGNA agreed to pay for treatment with physicians of my choice, and then they did not pay the bills.

I had perfect credit that they destroyed, and these bills only got paid when the State of California Department of Corporations ENFORCEMENT division came to my home took the bills and ordered Cigna to pay these. In fact in a letter from the enforcement Officer she wrote I have personally delivered these bills and ordered Cigna to pay, and if I got any more bills to forward them to
her. I still have that briefcase full of threatening letters and unpaid medical bills.

This is just the beginning of this story. I demanded that we check out all family members medical records, our 14 year old daughter had a condition that needed surgery, after dozens of visits to Cigna, they failed to tell us our daughter had diseased bone that was being pushed towards the orbit of her eye, and it could have pushed out her eye, and she would have lost her eyesight, and/ or her eye. She was 14 years old.

Outside surgeons performed this surgery, at Cedars Sinai in California.

Twelve years have passed and I am still alive.

Our whole family has fought for justice for 12 years, only to find, probably our Goverment is involved in these cover ups, and the Goverment condones the actions of these health insurance plans. They made it possible and encouraged the atrocities when they Limited Americas Right to sue these Criminals..like CIGNA

Posted at 10:20PM on Jan 7th 2008 by Jo Joshua Godfrey

13. Hey Jason, maybe you started something: G now has 1,830 results for "cigna sucks" on an exact (quotation marks) search. Yahoo? Over 53,000.

Posted at 12:12AM on Jan 10th 2008 by Marah Marie

14. I just stumbled across this BLOG about Cigna. I also am having trouble with CIGNA but as a medical biller for a Psychiatrist in Tulsa, OK. I have left several messages for the Provider Rep that will not return my calls. This morning when I called, her voice mailbox is full and not accepting any more messages. So, I hung up, called the number again and just tried to get through to anyone in Provider Relations to answer my simple question. After 3 minutes of prompts "choose this, choose that" the phone didn't ring but was a busy signal. So I called the Insurance Commissioner in the State of Oklahoma and aked for the phone numbeers to either the President or Medical Director for CIGNA. They offered the number 800-446-6633. This takes you directly to the Executive Offices of CIGNA in Connecticut. I explained my situation and the Executive Secretary stated she would have someone call me. I will post a followup if that happens.

People should be aware that they can involve the Insurance Commissioner in your state to help you get consumer claims paid. Oklahoma has a form; Oklahoma State Medical Association, Payment Hassles Survey. I encourage all medical billers to become involved when they cannot get their claims paid. Ask your State Insurance Commissioner if they will become involved. I wouldn't recommend it for just one issue but if you have an insurance company that consistantly does not pay your claims, request additional information or deny the claim to patient responsibility, by all means, get your State Insurance Commissioner involved. It cost the insurance companies a lot of money in time and effort to have the Insurance Commissioner audit their claims department.

Posted at 10:41AM on Jan 17th 2008 by Debbie MacLeod

15. I am the daughter of Jo Joshua Godfrey,

This is my story that I wrote to legislators when I was 14 years old. No 14 year old American should have ever had to live through this, and I am going to share it with you..

I am 14 years old and I am a victim of medical malpractice. I am writing to the Congress and the Senate because you need to help the victims of medical malpractice. I was ill, my head hurt and my mom took me to the doctor. I had frequent nose bleeds and bad headaches. I think this started in the end of 1992 or early 1993.

They said I was okay, and I remember one doctor was so mean to my mom and me; she didn’t even want to talk about it. She said it was all in my head, that I was okay. 1993 and 1994 were not good years in my life. I was unhappy. My mom was always sick, always in bed coughing, always going to CIGNA getting medicine, always too tired. My mom was not the same mom any more; my head hurt on and off, and I tired not to bother my mom as I could see how ill she was. She was always depressed, always crying, and always moody and coughing. I would yell at her to shut up at night and she kept us all awake, now I feel bad.

In February 1994, I was depressed, my head was hurting, and I took pills from the medicine cabinet, it wasn’t the first time I did this, but my mom was sick she didn’t even notice. Each time I took more and one day my mom came in to wake me up and I wouldn’t get up, I was too tired. My mom said that’s it, get dressed; we are going to CIGNA right away. I went there and CIGNA doctors saw me. They sent me to a mental health place and neither of these two places even knew what I had done. My mom walked me about and I told her what I ad done.

Later that day she said how could she live if I died. My mom cried because she was so tired she blamed herself because she
wasn’t doing enough. I made my mom a promise not to do this again.

My mom called CIGNA and got upset about how they failed to see I had tried to kill myself, asking them what kind of doctors they were. My mom screamed so much they agreed to give me a complete physical. At the physical in early March, we complained so much about my head they agreed to do scans of my head. This went on for about two and a half months, one scan after another, and finally the doctor said I needed to have my sinus washed out, that was in the end of May. My mom asked if this was urgent, did it need to be done right away, the doctor answered it was not urgent. My mom said we would have it done in the summer vacation.

From May to August, my mom got very ill. She went to the doctor and they put her on disability for 6 weeks. In the middle of July, I had a dream that my mom had lung cancer and she was going to die.

My mom got very upset when I told her this. By the beginning of August, my mom sent me to Ireland for one month to visit my grandparents. When I came back from Ireland in the end of August, our home was in an uproar, for 2 weeks CIGNA had refused to give my mom all her x-rays telling her they were lost. She had just got them and it showed she had the lung cancer for almost 2 years. My mom had an operation and 20% of her lung was removed. She had a carcinoid tumor. When my mom was in the hospital, the surgeon told my step-dad he was not well either. It ended up that CIGNA refused to release my step-dad’s records for 2 weeks. When they went to an outside doctor, CIGNA had been treating him for asthma; he really has a very advanced case of COPD and had something on his left lung like my mom had.

We went and got the records for all our family. When we saw mine, and we went to an outside doctor, after going outside doctors I know now what the difference is between a real doctor and a CIGNA doctor is, and I hope maybe one day I’ll get to tell you all about that.

I had a problem where the bone was being destroyed, where the bone was pushing through the orbit, and the doctor said my eye would have been pushed out. I had my surgery at Cedar-Sinai.

1995 is not much better that 1993 as there seems to be no justice for all these things that CIGNA did to us. We want to get the laws changed so no one will ever have to suffer like this again. CIGNA abuses our family to this very day. They make my mom cry for hours and I hope you will let me tell you all about this too. CIGNA should also know if my parents die, where will I go, and what will happen to my brother and sisters? I’m an American, and when I grow up, I don’t want to live here. I want to move to where people are good and kind. I’ll move to Ireland.

Now I am 28 Years old. However it is pretty sad that any family would have had to suffer this way, and these crooks and swindlers escaped punishment in the State of California.

THANK YOU CIGNA GLENDALE

Posted at 3:22PM on Mar 1st 2008 by Shannon Joshua

16. Testimony Senate Rules Committe Hearing State of California Monday May 12th,1997 at 2.03PM

I have come to share my experiences with you. The Department of Corporations is failing in its regulatory function, and my familys experience illustrates that. And my own personal experience with Cigna Healthcare will illustrate how consumers are being abused, and how the Department of Corporations is turning a blind eye.
My experience with Cigna began with the abuse of my parents, and in turn they perpetrated that abuse against every member of my family. When I was sick and needed a physician they would send me out on an appointment, and I would be humiliated because most often the physician where they sent me was not expecting me. As a result Cigna sent me a letter saying that I could choose my own physician and they would pay for the medical care. They did this once and then they did not pay for the medical care, and I was threatened by collection agencies that I would be sued if I did not pay the bill. Cigna also said that I could choose a doctor of my choice in my place of residence Santa Barbara, and this never happened. Cigna assigned me a dostor in Santa Barbara but when I was sick and wanted to make an appointment and I called the doctor she never returned my calls. When we contacted the doctors office they said they did not work with Cigna anymore, because Cigna would not make referrals when specialists were needed.
Last year I needed specialty care, and during the procedure the doctor said I needed a Biopsy. He had to stop in the middle and get authorization from CIGNA to continue. The doctor said the two procedures were linked and he had never been expected to perform MEDICINE in this way before. After this procedure when I complained to the Department of Corporations about this Cigna denied the accusationsand responded that the doctor was mistaken. Since that time the doctor came forward to his Legislator in Santa Barbara he stated he performed the Biopsy without their authorization,and my account of the incident was correct. The doctor said I needed follow up every 90 days as this was a pre cancerous condition. Cigna said if I needed this specialty care I needed to go through the primary care doctor to make sure I needed it, and they in turn assigned me a primary care Doctor in Santa Maria, not even in the same County, and more that an hour from my residence.
I am a student I go to UC Santa Barbara, and I do not have transportation. It is just not a viable option., and the Department of Corporations instead of assisting me, had the person at Cigna that was responsible for harassing me and obstructing my treatment call me again

Posted at 3:58PM on Mar 25th 2008 by Lillian