Healthcare Insurance Companies Are Leveraging AI For Novel Use-Cases

This week, Cigna announced a landmark partnership with OpenAI. The goal of the collaboration: to help patients with complex conditions recieve better support. Notably, the first use case will be for cancer patients, specifically to help them find resources, coordinate care, and help with generalized support as needed. Given its stature and tenure in the industry, Cigna already has a massive ecosystem built around it for care navigation and to address chronic care needs; now, with this partnership, patients will be able to more quickly access resources and information on demand.

Dr. Amy Flaster, Chief Medical Officer at Cigna explains the value: “Receiving a complex diagnosis alters a person’s life instantly. Patients find themselves confronted with difficult treatment decisions, emotional stress and a health care system that can be hard to navigate…Whether a patient is struggling with treatment side effects or coping with the emotional impact of a diagnosis, bringing the power of OpenAI to The Cigna Group will help connect patients to our specialized clinicians, resources and support. This is how we can begin to realize the promise of AI to unlock better health outcomes: identifying issues earlier, offering support between doctors’ visits, and making complex care feel less overwhelming.”

The use of OpenAI’s frontier models will help surface clinical, pharmacy, behavioral and benefits information to understand what a patient needs so that care managers can determine the right support infrastructure. Additionally, by collating patient information and side effects, care managers can better chart out specific needs throughout the care journey.