Welcome back to the team and our readers!

We are back folks! I know some thought we just grabbed the money and ran...nothing could be further from the truth. We (the whole team) needed some time to rest and decompress from the almost 80 hour a week job of taking on someone the size of Cigna. While we often seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of energy, we simply went beyond what we had to spend physically and mentally in order to keep up that pace.

Now that we have rested from the last major pushes of the battle, we are ready for more. Not to sound biblical but in the beginning we said we were here because we had been wronged and wanted to execute our plan to make Cigna toe the line in a very public forum, as public as possible. If we had failed we would have been no worse off and others could have learned what not to do. If we won, the tactics could serve as an example for others in our boat.

After all, education and the dissemination of information has been the cornerstone of the Cigna War Journal right from the beginning.

The other key reason for the public forum is so that Cigna would learn if they try lame and dirty tricks, not only would they get called on them but EVERYONE would know what they are up to. It is an Olympic task but keeping Cigna honest is important too, as strange as that feeling might seem to them.

We have a plan...

Next steps:
This last round of battles with Cigna has shown that  about half of the time when you have problems with them its because of the ass-hat contingent there at Cigna but the other half of the problems are just plain bureaucracy. We have more than demonstrated how to deal with ass-hats, people at Cigna who think its a game to see how much they can screw with you, particularly after you show you are willing and able to fight back.  We are looking forward to creating a sort of détente with whoever gets stuck being our case manager where in prior to January of each new year the case manager will receive all documentation needed for a clean LTD determination. At this point we hope the person in charge looks at it, looks at what has come before and makes the sane decision.

The point is, we are leaving them with no legal or medical reason for refusal and at that moment in time each case manager will need to make a choice, fight or approve. No other options and the instant they even flinch in the direction of game-playing we are going immediately to stage 3 on that person and the whole team and everything in that persons life will become considerably more interesting in a Chinese way.

Why go from zero to ass-whuppin' so fast? Two key reasons gang; first, the old saw about 'those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it' is true and if the case manager doesn't read the records or learn from the past, there is no reason to waste any opening moves. This dragged on too long last year; they almost had us on the street financially but we pulled it out at the last minute. The other reason is, if they have all the records and data they need to make a determination, the only excuse for games is screwing with us for the sake of screwing with us, making this person a prime candidate for hostilities; bad faith and all that rot.

So going forward Cigna, the rules are simpler than they have been in the past; follow the KISS method and we will both survive. Our case is real and true and you have contractual obligations. We will give you what you need, you give us what we need. Anything else results in hostilities. We have spent enough time trying to be nice about this and you have spent far too little.

The war also took a hell of a financial toll on us and we are just barely climbing back out of the hole; not there yet. Was it worth it, the year of anger, pain and fear? Well, since we won, yes. It was a gamble and losing that one was the end of everything which left us no place to look but down the barrel of our digital gun for survival. We pray no one else finds themselves in this situation and frankly we hope Cigna doesn't smell weariness in this post and try to hit us while we are weak; we have one hell of a surprise for them if they do. We actually have a number of interesting WMDs that never got used in the last battle but fear not: if they try anything we are more than ready to fight back.

We are not screwing around but more importantly, we are tired of being screwed with. We don't have the time or energy to waste on simple-minded Cigna tactics since the reason for ALL of this is that we are trying to get Jeff's condition addressed and cannot do it if we have to spend all of our time fighting Cigna tactics.

Still, a wins a win and for now we are simply be happy with that. Maybe this will give hope to others that Cigna and others like them can be defeated; take heart and keep trying.

As always, if you have questions or just want to chat, drop us a note at CignaWarjournal@gmail.com

Cheers and KTFB!

Beth
CignaWarJournal at Gmail dot com