Cigna Corporation announced the release of Cigna CompassSM, a new web application designed to use anticipatory computing to guide U.S. health plan customers to proactively build their own personal health care team, save money, and get the most from their plans. Cigna Compass web app tells customers of available cash rewards for improving health. Cigna Compass synthesizes data related to a consumer's medical plan use, biometric data, incentive information, claims history, and coaching program involvement.

Those insights create personalized alerts to notify customers of their top opportunities to improve their health and lower their health care costs. The tool is designed to simplify the complexity of health care decision making for consumers. Cigna first developed Compass as an innovation initiative for Cigna health plan client JPMorgan Chase.

By pairing proprietary algorithms with a very clean, simple user experience, Cigna Compass delivers personalized information to customers to: Help them build a proactive personal health team of quality, cost-efficient health care professionals and services by guiding customers to stay in network and choose local cost-effective options such as urgent care, preferred labs, and free-standing radiology facilities; Educate them on how plan funds work together (HRA/HSA, Incentives, FSA) to lower their out-of-pocket costs; Remind them about ongoing reward programs; Encourage use of available benefits such as personal health coaches and other programs and resources to improve health; Benchmark them against their peer group for the identified opportunity selected and/or how that peer group has benefited from the recommendation. To avoid that scenario, Cigna Compass will contact a customer who does not have a designated primary care doctor, and provide a list of nearby in-network health care professionals and facilities based upon the customer's location before they need to use care. Cigna Compass is also designed to reach out to any customer who has an identified opportunity like alerting someone that has not received preventive care with a note that the individual's plan offers an incentive for a yearly checkup or recommended lab test.

As customers make progress toward their health goals and incentive rewards, they can see their updated personal information as well as new recommendations every time they log in, whether from a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Cigna Compass is currently being piloted by JPMorgan Chase and will expand to a select number of U.S. employers in 2015. Cigna plans to offer Compass to a broader segment of Cigna's employer sponsored health plan customer base in 2016 and beyond.