PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

CIGNA settlement deadline nearing

Doctors can make claims one of two ways.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Feb. 7, 2005.

If you haven't already, now is the time to finish getting claims together for the massive CIGNA Corp. settlement. Claims must be filed before Feb. 18.

An estimated 900,000 physicians are eligible for compensation from CIGNA, and doctors can go about it in two ways.

They can opt to be part of a $30 million fund to be divided among those who chose that option. By going that route, doctors don't have to find and submit documentation of claims they filed with CIGNA over 13 years. Even those who did not file a claim with CIGNA in that time but who filed with other health plans that are part of the massive litigation in that period are eligible to be part of the fund.

Physicians who don't want to share in a set amount of money can be part of the Claim Distribution Fund. Under that option, physicians have three ways to claim money, and they can make claims under all three areas.

First, physicians can submit paperwork showing that they faced denial or payment reductions for 1,200 different code combinations.

Second, physicians can submit claims for other codes that were unpaid or underpaid. Lastly, doctors can file paperwork showing claims for which they believe CIGNA improperly denied payment because the plan cited the treatment as medically unnecessary, experimental or investigational.

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