Global health service company Cigna has launched a new pregnancy app.
The company announced yesterday that the app, which is set to launch in January 2019, will better connect individual customers to Cigna’s suite of health benefits including the Cigna Healthy Pregnancies, Healthy Babies maternity health engagement program.
“Our new app is designed to make it easier to enroll and engage in Cigna’s Healthy Pregnancies, Healthy Babies program, which has shown to have a direct impact on improved health outcomes for both mom and baby,” Dr. Patricia Stephenson and senior medical director at Cigna, said in a statement. “The app delivers convenient, personalized guidance, giving expectant moms and dads information to help them make important health care decisions in real time.”
In 2016, 53 percent of eligible Cigna participants enrolled during their first trimester, with only 10 percent of these women experiencing preterm deliveries. In addition, there was a 79 percent full-term pregnancy rate among women identified to be at risk for preterm delivery. Improving the likelihood of full-term pregnancies also improves affordability, with more than $2,000 in average savings per participant and nearly $43,000 saved per participant identified as at-risk for preterm delivery.
App developer Wildflower Health reports that more than 66 percent of app users registered during their first trimester, and stayed engaged in the app by regularly accessing content within the app. This includes about 60 percent of users taking the app’s pregnancy health assessment survey, which identifies potential high-risk pregnancies and connects them to relevant resources.
The Cigna Healthy integrated app also delivers personalized guidance and helps expectant parents optimize their health benefits and connect to other available resources including: Health alerts and reminders, find a healthcare provider, cost and quality tools, maternity coaching and incentives.
An important goal of the Healthy Pregnancies, Healthy Babies program and accompanying Healthy Pregnancy app is to reduce the number of pregnancies resulting in preterm and low birth weight babies through early risk identification, encouraging appropriate care and treatment coordination, preventive care and healthy lifestyle education.
The app has several key functions including a health assessment survey that transmits answers seamlessly to Cigna maternity coaches, who outreach to women and offer enrollment in the pregnancy coaching program.
The app also offers TheDirect connection to Cigna Healthy Pregnancies, Healthy Babies program resources and employer-specific healthy pregnancies, healthy babies program incentives and customer support phone numbers, as well as personalized content.
In addition to the fully integrated and connected version of the app available for eligible customers, the content-only version is available to all U.S. Cigna medical customers. Cigna’s Healthy Pregnancy app is powered by mobile health app developer Wildflower Health and will be available on the App Store or Google Play TM online stores.
