CIGNA Expert Urges Action to Avert National Health and Productivity Crisis.

PHILADELPHIA -- Gary Earl of CIGNA is one of a select group of 30 national experts urging U.S. employers and employees to work as partners to avert a national crisis of failing health and lagging productivity. Earl was part of the Workforce Health and Productivity Summit representing employers, physicians, health care providers, individuals, academia, and government, a group organized by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Integrated Benefits Institute, with funding by sanofi-aventis.

The summit concluded that urgent steps are needed to shift the nation to a more proactive and preventive approach to health. Among the group's conclusions: Not all employers understand the link between health and productivity; a more consistent system of workforce health measurement is needed; employers and employees need to join forces in a system-wide effort to improve health; and integrated health and productivity strategies must consider all influencers of health, from individual lifestyle changes and access to care to social and environmental factors. The group called for several actions, including focusing on workforce health policy as a fundamental part of national health care reform.

"With a growing burden of chronic health conditions among the aging workforce, our country's current approach to health is not enough to sustain our competitiveness in the global economy or to help the American worker lead a better life," Earl said. "But if we work together, we can reverse the trends that lead to illness and disability, and reap the rewards of better health as we expand our view of the root causes of our country's health challenges."

Earl has been deeply involved with identifying the causes of sickness and disease that drive people into the health care system. He is a founder of the Communities of Health initiative, part of CIGNA's Health Strategy & Policy organization, which engages communities in improving social and environmental conditions that determine health, well-being and security. Communities of Health was developed, tested and refined for more than two years in collaboration with business, community, academic and governmental leaders who addressed the social dimensions of health - such as social conditions, economic opportunity, food and transport systems.

Formal consensus statements and recommendations from the Workforce Health and Productivity Summit are available at www.acoem.org. A more detailed report of the summit proceedings will be distributed in early 2009. CIGNA will convene a Communities of Health Forum in Las Vegas later this month where community leaders will explore solutions to improving the health of the city.

About CIGNA

CIGNA (NYSE:CI), a global health service company, is dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and security. CIGNA Corporation's operating subsidiaries provide an integrated suite of medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy and vision care benefits, as well as group life, accident and disability insurance, to approximately 47 million people throughout the United States and around the world. To learn more about CIGNA, visit www.cigna.com.