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Over the last year, David M. Cordani was the second in command at CIGNA Corp. at a time when the Philadelphia-based company planned to cut more than 1,000 jobs worldwide - but the Bloomfield office actually gained people.
Now the 43-year-old Waterbury native is the health, disability and life insurer's chief executive officer, officially as of Christmas Day, but he started in the role this week. And unlike his predecessor, H. Edward Hanway, who sat in the headquarters, Cordani intends to split his office time between Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
There is more cutting to be done, Cordani said in an interview in his office Monday. But he said he doesn't anticipate the Connecticut office - which increased from 3,852 to 3,957 in the middle six months of 2009 - will lose jobs.
And there are solid plans for growth, as well. But although recent history may raise local hopes, the Simsbury resident wouldn't say whether his growth strategy will add more jobs in Connecticut.
"The employment growth in any individual state would be dependent on what acquisition or where the growth is coming from," he said, "but I believe that growth is an important part of our strategy."
An avid triathlete, Cordani is more open with his thoughts about personal health and fitness as part of the national health care debate.
"We are a more obese country, and overweight country, than other developed nations. There's a high correlation to obesity across to coronary disease, cancer, musculoskeletal. So, when we deal with sustainability of cost," he said, "we need to deal with some of the underlying drivers of cost."
That philosophy colors Cordani's, and CIGNA's, approach to reform efforts that are reaching a climax in Washington, D.C. - efforts that have not addressed cost, said Cordani, echoing many other health insurance industry leaders.
"We looked at where the industry was, and said, essentially, 'The payment of claims for when somebody is sick is an important part of insurance, but there's more to it.'... I believe in health engagement, health improvement. I also believe in everything in moderation."
He pointed to photos of his two young children and said they're active children, and they still get dessert and candy. Everything in moderation, Cordani said again.
Starting a lifelong habit of running in the 1980s while in college at Texas A&M University, he initially dropped 50 pounds and maintains his trim, 170-pound figure with regular exercise.
He participated in his first triathlon in 1992, four years after graduating with a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance. Cordani said he has competed in more than 100 triathlons, two iron-man competitions which are expanded triathlons, and he plans to run a half-marathon Saturday for Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, a CIGNA-sponsored event at the Orlando, Fla., amusement park.
Health campaign
Cordani, who will be paid an annual salary of $1 million and $9 million in possible annual bonuses and incentives, has been with the company for 18 years. He became president of CIGNA HealthCare, which is the unit based in Bloomfield, in 2005 - and started a campaign to promote health, fitness and nutrition as preventive measures to getting sick.
Cordani, a certified public accountant and chartered financial consultant, is on the boards of America's Health Insurers Plans, National Association of Manufacturers and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, and has been active in several anti-disease organizations. Other than saying he wants company managers to be good corporate citizens, he was not specific about affiliations he might add.
But for now, he said, he will continue to lobby members of Congress about health care reform.
The current Senate bill is light on improvements to cost and quality of medical care and it will eventually shift cost to premiums which could have a profound effect on the middle class, Cordani said. By expanding access to tens of millions of uninsured Americans while taxing insurers, the cost of paying to cover the uninsured will mean higher premiums for those who have private insurance.
"If the primary objective is to raise fees and costs for the health insurance industry and certain other players to be able to pay for the access expansion, what it does is actually increases cost. And it might not increase cost at a federal budget level, but it increases cost for society in total."
When asked if some politicians have been particularly helpful or unhelpful to CIGNA's vision for health care reform, Cordani said he is encouraged by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and other junior senators focused on improving cost and quality of health care. He also gave credit to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who many believe single-handedly expunged a government health care plan, or public option, from the Senate's bill.
"I think Sen. Lieberman has been a good, balanced leader in terms of going back to the principles of sustainable health care reform and there are indeed other individuals for sure," Cordani said.
5-Year plan
The recession has hit health insurers as employers lay off workers, driving down insurers' enrollment.
CIGNA saw its stock soar to $56.36 in early 2008, then dive below $9 per share to a decade low in November 2008. Shares have risen steadily since the stock market bottomed out in March 2009. CIGNA closed at $36.37 Monday, near a 52-week high.
In 2008, CIGNA's net income fell to $292 million from $1.1 billion in 2007, as investment issues mounted - although share buybacks maintained per-share earnings.
The company announced in January 2009 plans to cut 1,100 jobs.
CIGNA had 26,562 employees at the end of September, said spokesman Chris Curran.
The plan for the next year and five years is to drive growth and outpace competition by broadening the company's customer base. In the U.S., Cordani wants to focus on expanding the company's employer-based health care in specific geographic regions where he sees opportunity - although he didn't name those areas.
However, CIGNA will take a coast-to-coast approach to growing its group disability insurance which, unlike health insurance, is not network-based business. Cordani said the company is interested in acquiring other health insurers, but also expanding some specialty provider capabilities: pharmacy, behavioral or mental health, dental and disease management, as examples.
"The mission of our company will not change and does not change," Cordani said, "and that is: We built the company here to improve the health, well-being and sense of security of the people we serve."
Matthew Sturdevant
Source: The Hartford Courant January 2010
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