Fierce JPM Week: Evernorth CEO outlines top priorities in 2021

The leader of Cigna’s new health services subsidiary Evernorth said that the new venture is focusing on solutions for behavioral health and musculoskeletal care.

Evernorth CEO Tim Wentworth detailed the new company’s plans on Wednesday during Fierce's JPM week virtual event. Evernorth launched last September and includes the insurer’s health services business and pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts.

He said that services on musculoskeletal conditions such as orthopedics have become a major key area.

“The care for that which can be very expensive is not always rational to the best value and best cost,” Wentworth said.

Evernorth is looking into creating an end-to-end solution for patients that need musculoskeletal care.

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Wentworth added that behavioral health remains a key priority that has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evernorth has been incorporating the connected solution inMynd with Cigna’s health plans and hopes to wrap its behavioral health solution with other health plans.

“We see long after COVID-19 has found herd immunity that behavioral health challenges is going to be an area we are going to double down in,” Wentworth said.

Evernorth is also looking at ways it can improve care coordination and outcomes in the oncology space.

“We see significant areas of oncology where we think the patient experience, payer outcomes and frankly the way providers are able to do their best work can be optimized in a very positive way by using a number of our tools and our platforms,” he said.

The goal is to explore the challenging parts of healthcare that “folks have continued to struggle with, that solutions need to be developed for,” Wentworth said.