David Schwartz 

Head of Global Policy 

Cigna Federal Affairs 

October 27, 201 7 

VIA ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION TO www.rcgulations.gov 

Employee Benefits Security Administration 

Room N-5655 

U.S. Department of Labor 

200 Constitution A venue, NW 

Washington, DC 2021 0 

Cigna. 

60 1 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Suite 835, South Building 

Washington, DC 20004 

(202) 7 19-6499 

David.Schwartz@Cigna.com 

Attention: Claims Procedure for Plans Providing Disability Benefits Examination 

Re: Claims Procedure for Plans Providing Disability Benefits; Extension of Applicability 

Date (RIN l210-AB39) 

To Whom It May Concern: 

Cigna Corporation, together with its subsidiaries (either individually or collectively referred to as 

Cigna), is a global health services organization dedicated to helping people improve their health, 

well-being and sense of security. Our subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, 

disability, life and accident insurance and related products and services. Worldwide, we offer 

peace of mind and a sense of security to our customers seeking protection for themselves and 

their families at critical points in their lives. 

Cigna appreciates the work ofthe Department of Labor (Department) stemming from Executive 

Order 13777, entitled Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda, and reconsidering the crafting 

of regulations impacting individuals who might become disabled. Cigna thanks the Department 

for its subsequent proposal to delay for 90 days the applicability of the December 19, 2016 Final 

Rule amending the claims procedure requirements applicable to ERISA-covered employee 

benefit plans. 

The Department's action is an impOitant recognition of the far-reaching impact the Final Rule 

will have on a broad group of stakeholders

For example

it will impact whether employers offer 
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October 27, 20 17 

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process. It will also force insurers to grapple with increased operating costs and unpredictable 

consumer behavior by unnecessarily encouraging reliance on expensive federal litigation to 

resolve underdeveloped but disputed claims that otherwise may have resolved under the current, 

less expensive administrative process. 

Cigna has been working diligently to comply with the Final Rule and absorb the costs associated 

with it. Delaying the rule's applicability for 90 days is a step in the right direction, but Cigna 

believes a longer delay is warranted. While any delay would allow companies to better manage 

the transition to meeting new requirements as they are currently configured, should the Department make modifications to the Final Rule during this timeframe, most companies will 

still need many months to develop and/or reprogram information technology systems, retrain 

workers, and find and allocate resources for additional employees to keep pace with new 

requirements. Therefore, at a minimum, Cigna recommends delaying the Final Rule for 180 days 

to better accommodate the normal course of business and to alleviate some of the uncertainty 

employers and disability carriers currently face, while simultaneously giving them more time to 

prepare. 

We make this recommendation in an attempt to minimize the repercussions of the Final Rule on 

the disability insurance market. Importantly, while roughly one-quarter of Americans will 

experience a disability before retirement, only about one-fifth of Americans have disability 

insurance. This inconsistency, coupled with data that show shrinking resources to pay for 

disability income insurance and the observed drop in coverage around the 2008 financial crisis, 

demonstrate consumer behaviors and price sensitivity in this particular market. 

The Department noted the generalized nature of the feedback it has received with respect to the 

impact of the Final Rule and its interest in receiving more concrete data. Unfortunately, we see 

the same obstacles to providing such data as we did before. Given that much of the Final Rule's 

actual burden and impact are directly proportional to the consumer behaviors encouraged by the 

Final Rule, the full effect of the Final Rule will not be known for years and will take careful 

analysis to completely ascertain. It is an unprecedented undertaking for disability carriers to 

work together to compile data to analyze the impact of a rule on anticipated but unknowable 

consumer behavior. Data on the disability market, competitive landscape, and employer 

responses to pricing and new administrative requirements are difficult if not impossible to 

collect, especially because some plan rates are guaranteed for multiple years. Cigna concurs with 

many of the comments the Department has received since publishing the Final Rule and is 

committed to working with the industry to improve the Department's analytical capabilities. 
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October 27, 2017 

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Therefore, Cigna believes it is appropriate to request an additional 30-60 days beyond the 

proposed December 11th date, to provide the requested data in support of industry-wide efforts to 

demonstrate how the Final Rule could be most harmful to claimants. 

Thank you for considering these comments and for your efforts to strengthen the disability 

income insurance market through enhanced consumer protections and reasonable modifications 

to allow more individuals to enjoy the peace of mind afforded by this important coverage. 

Respectfully, David Schwartz