Cigna Once Put Employees in a Pink Palace Bought With Customers' Premium Dollars
Luxury on policy holders' dime.
I escaped the cold North last weekend to catch a Phillies spring training game in Florida. This time, though, I didn’t stay in a fancy resort like when I worked for Cigna.
Down the Gulf of America a few miles from the ballpark in Clearwater is the venerable, top-of-the-line Don Cesar Hotel, known locally as the Pink Palace and so important it has its own Wikipedia page. My family and I stayed at the Don many times back in the day because it didn’t set us back a lot more than if we’d stayed in a Motel 6. That’s because Cigna owned it, and Cigna execs could stay there at a steep discount and be treated like VIPs.
Cigna viewed the Don as an investment, and I suspect it might have been a good one. The company sold it several years ago, meaning my former colleagues now likely have to pay the full freight of $500+ a night for the least expensive room. But hey, it’s right on the water. (Maybe a bit too close. The Don is just now reopening after being closed for renovations after last fall’s Hurricane Milton.)
You might be surprised to know what big insurance companies do with your premium dollars when they’re not paying your claims. And Cigna owned the Don way before it launched its vertical integration strategy and became an enormous pharmacy benefits manager as well as a giant health insurer.
For more on what Big Insurance does with your money (instead of paying your claims) watch this space in the coming weeks.
The Phillies beat the Orioles, by the way.
The gulf of America is a joke right?
I am always fascinated that their employees brag about the substantial bonuses they get as well!! I figure that is money that did not go to benefit patients….we don’t get bonuses on the hospital side of care!