This is what it is like trying to get some truth from a Cigna employee. To paraphrase the old joke, how can you tell that a Cigna employee is lying? Their lips are moving..
Lies, damned lies and Cigna-speak...
There are liars and then there are Cigna employees. These folks are like the Jedi Knights of falsehood; even Jon Lovitz above is a rank amateur compared to them. You just don't get that good overnight or by accident of birth. No, this degree of Olympic-class fibbing must come from training of some kind.
What follows are a number of examples to learn from. They demonstrate how to tell when you are being lied to and how to see through the lie if one of these methods is used. These things actually happened to us. Experience they say is what you have when you didn't get what you asked for. If this is true then we have at least that much to share so let's go. There is a sign-post ahead to guide us..
Cigna Deception Method #1: The lie with truth.
So what makes this method so insidious? They lie with truth. Not THE truth as in, what you are talking about. Worse, the lies are often so transparent as to suspect they are doing it just to insult your intelligence.
How does one lie with truth? Let us take a simple example that happened when we were just starting to learn about the many ways that Cigna pulls this happy crappy.
Situation: Jeff has a neurological disability. At the time when this story takes place, we have submitted numerous medical assessments from multiple states and hospitals where he was tested. All agreed that he was disabled. Cigna in its wisdom examines all of the evidence and concludes that Jeff is not disabled. Needless to say we called to ask WTF and this is what we were told by the so-called nurse:
Nurse: We have determined that Mr. Cobb is not disabled based on the fact that he has submitted no medical proof that he is physically disabled. No evidence, no disability.
Us: Waitaminit! We have told you both verbally and in writing that he is disabled due to a neurological problem and the physical stuff means nothing.
Nurse: Oh I see. OK I am going to send out some paperwork for him to complete and we will re-assess the claim. <CLICK>
Do you see how she did it? She told the lie (There is no evidence of disability) by telling a truth that really doesn't mean anything (There is no evidence of physical disability). She knew ahead of time that physical disability had nothing at all to do with it yet she continued the fiction.
One small aside at this point: This story also reveals a really common trick that they do to keep from actually doing anything useful while lying to the disabled. This is the old Lie and Dodge two-step. First the Lie (We really did evaluate the claim and concluded...) and then when called on it, the Dodge ("I am going to send out paperwork to complete..."). This gives them a convenient "run and hide" strategy. You then wait for this phantom paperwork to arrive, stupidly thinking Cigna finally did something right, only to find out that this rocket-scientist nurse sent Jeff a frigging Physical Activity Survey! Our reaction was as expected:
This is where we get to lie (or deception; a rose by any other name would smell as sweet) method #2:
Cigna Deception Method #2: Lying with hope.
In this scenario, having been caught in a deception the Cigna employee will often deflect his or her guilt (you know who you are and so do we) by lying with hope to the disabled. First you are incredulous over the fact that Cigna came up with a decision that is the polar opposite of everyone else on the planet, then the obviously brain-dead medical foul-up Cigna's 'medical staff' pulled in the previous example and you want justice. The Cigna employee responds with something that sounds like it helps you, fixes the problem and gives you hope while you wait by the phone for their decision.
Us: This paperwork is all wrong. We were told that we were being sent paperwork that would help correct our claim but this is a physical survey. It has nothing to do with his claim at all and should not be used to determined disability!
Cigna employee: Oh, no PROBLEM! I see that the physical form had nothing to do with it so don't worry about filling it out or returning it. We will take another look at it to be sure!
Us: (stupidly relieved) Thanks!
We hang up thinking this guy helped us when in fact he was swinging for the fence on that one. First he uses a bit from trick number #1 above with " I see that the physical form had nothing to do with it" (the truth) and without taking a breath "so don't worry about filling it out or returning it." (the lie...) finishing the con with "We will take another look at it to be sure!" (the hope).
So you wait thinking you had been helped and you are hopeful saner minds will reign at Cigna when in actuality what just happened is that we were screwed either way. If we do send it in and answer truthfully, we are still denied because now they are in possession of "proof" of lack of disability! If we do not, Cigna then points to the fact that we did not send in requested records and based on that, denied. Yes both of these scenarios happened, this is not theory or exaggeration. The Cigna employee knew that he was deflecting the guilt by giving us hope in something that had no chance, no chance at all.
Cigna Deception Method #3: The "Gimme a break" Lie.
This is sadly one of the more common methods used by Cigna, what the team calls the "gimme a break!" lie or deception. This is one where they tell a lie so bold, something so wild (a four-year old would know it's a lie) that you are shocked into speechlessness. You know what I am talking about. When a person tells a fish story it is easy to call bullshit on it but when a Jedi Liar does it, they can actually shock us into thinking "did we actually hear that right???". This boys and girls is an excellent reason to tape record every single conversation by the way.
The theory is that the Cigna employee knows that there is an odor to what they must say and know they would get busted by the person on the other end of the phone so they make a lie so big that the caller is shocked, then runs and hides.
While we were not as shocked in this case (Cigna lies are like dog turds; the older they are the easier they are to pick up) but it is a primo example of output from the Cigna Bullshit Engine. Fast recap of the Dick Puddle story was that we were on a call with a Cigna employee (an "advocate" if you can believe it) where we were trying to work out some method of transmitting documents directly to Cigna when this genius replies "We only have (snail) mail and fax. We have no email here." Dude, email has been around for like 30 years. Ole Dick Puddle held to his statement that they had no email, only postal mail and fax.
Dick knew we weren't buying it but stuck to the lie anyways for reasons of his own. If this were just an isolated incident we would just write it off to the Peter Principle in action again but such is not the case. This happens with enough frequency that we are starting to get insulted that Cigna is foisting such lame fiction on us.
Cigna Deception Method #4: The Phantom External Document Lie.
This is pretty simple and easy to spot but the never-say-die Cigna employees love to still give it a go. How does it work? They lead you to believe statement X is true because phantom document/policy/stone tablet says it is. Of course you have never heard of said, document, have no way of finding it let alone getting it to prove statement X as being false so you are stuck with a shit-burger to eat. All the Cigna employee has to do in order to pull this off is to gauge the intelligence of the caller (kinda like the guy who guesses your weight at the fair) and figure out what document is just beyond your capability to get. If they think little of you they will point to something vague in the policy, betting you will never read it and trust the "voice of authority". If they think that you might be an adversary they will reach for some phantom (as far as you know; some of them sound made up on the spot) document or publication that Sherlock Holmes would have to work to track down. If they really think that you have them cornered, they fall back on Cigna company policy with of course are confidential to them.
A recent instance of this is kind of classical. The so-called medical director in this claim apparently didn't have anything supporting denial so he denies it anyways based on some "DMS Expert Resource Professional Conduct statement". This is right from Jeff's records. In short, the doctor (We are calling him Doctor McGoo for obvious reasons. This guy is so old he probably gave Moses cough medicine.) made in illogical decision based on no facts and backed it up with a phantom document worded so vaguely as to mean anything. To tie it all up, he sold the lie with a phantom document.
Yes each permutation of this happened to us over and over again; don't get caught by this boys and girls. As soon as they point to some external document to support what they say, demand a notarized copy. Cigna pulls this alot, hoping that you will not call them on it.
This one is similar to the Lie With Hope method but Cigna takes it to a new level by lying, and then to show that they ate their Wheaties, lie again about the lie! We told you these people were Jedi-class bullshitters. We were faced with this one early on and it has been revisited often. If you have dealt with Cigna before you know this part well: You get denied, you call to ask why, they said some committee came up with the decision. You rightly state they are wrong and what can you do about it. This is where they get ya:
Cigna: No problem, just send an appeal to our headquarters and we will give the case a review.
Us: Really? Can we send this any other way that is faster than snail mail?
Cigna: Sure, just fax it in and the appeal can take several weeks.
At this point (the first time) we walked away thinking that we had a chance to get things sorted out. The first sign of trouble came when we called back to ask our "rep" what we should put in the appeal document. He replies "It really doesn't matter. Put what you want." which we naively took to mean write as much of an argument as we needed and it would be taken into consideration during appeal review.
When Cigna redenied the claim in spite of the additional documentation and arguments that we sent, we looked closer at Andrews words and realized that it literally didn't matter what you put in your appeal. If everything in your appeal is ignored then the outcome is bound to be the same; to expect anything else is how Albert Einstein defined insanity.
The first lie is the hope and the second lie (about the first lie, stay with us) is the truth that the system is designed to fail the people who need it most. In this case, Cigna company 'procedure' is designed to fail the disabled and allow Cigna to come up with whatever result they want, when they want. Once the appeal is shown to be fiction, you realize how big the second lie really is.
Conclusions if any.
Can you just imagine what it would be like if once you called Cigna to ask about your claim and they were forced to tell the truth?
As satisfying as that fantasy is, in reality the best thing you can do is to learn the tricks and watch for them. Cigna is definitely a creature of habit so learning this creatures habits can help protect you from needless delays or out-and-out bullshit if you can get ahead of it. They will probably still succeed; after all, they have had lots of practice at this and one hell of an incentive. Still, by trapping their lies, we make it harder for them. At the very least we can make them work for their money and work harder to think up new deceptive practices.
True, it is possible that many of these deceptions can be written off to stupidity. If you want to believe that however you must then further state that of the people that we have dealt with in this claim, very close to 100% are idiots. If that is the case then Cigna must have recruiting drives for them or something. And this team is the one that you have to trust with your very future?
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