U.S. health insurer and administrator Cigna and pharmacy benefit management organization Express Scripts in May 2019 announced they collaborated with Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant device, to produce two new voice skills.

Express Scripts customers who use prescription home delivery services will now be able to manage their pharmacy prescriptions using voice technology. By saying “Alexa, open Express Scripts”, users can monitor their prescription order status and receive notifications including when their order has shipped. This service is deigned to improve medication adherence by making the process of ordering prescription medication more convenient for customers.

A second voice skill currently being piloted by Cigna with one of their national clients is called “Cigna Health Today™. Employees who opt in to this service can say “Alexa, open Cigna Health Today” to have access to personalized wellness incentives and rewards (such as redeemable gift dollars) as well as motivational health and well-being tips.

These new voice skills expand Cigna’s existing voice capabilities. In March 2018, Cigna launched “Answers by Cigna” which responds with simple answers to over 250 commonly-asked health care questions.

Incentive Programs Work!

A 2015-2018 study conducted by Cigna of more than 200,000 U.S. customers found that customers participating in incentive programs were twice as likely to meet personal health improvement goals and allowed Cigna to distribute more than $255 million in cost savings back to customers for completing more than 4.5 million health goals. These new voice skills are designed to facilitate such incentive programs and allow customers to take better control of their health.