Dive Brief:
- Health insurer Cigna has appointed Gina Papush to the newly created position of global chief data and analytics officer.
- Papush joins Cigna from QBE Insurance Group, where she held the same title, overseeing data and analytics functions for the company. She has also held senior leadership roles in enterprise data and analytics implementation at Citigroup, Fulcrum Analytics and GE Capital.
- She will be based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and report to Chris Hocevar, president of strategy, segments and solutions.
Dive Insight:
Papush’s appointment comes as insurance companies increasingly are focusing on advanced analytics, also known as data science, to guide decision making and create value for organizations. She brings to the job more than 22 years of experience in analytics strategy development and data science.
Industry is moving from computer science, where coders write line-by-line instructions, toward training computers to look for information that is valuable to the business, according to a report from McKinsey & Co. Data scientists now have increased storage capacity, computing power and sophisticated algorithms at their disposal. In healthcare, it is hoped that data analytics ultimately will help improve the affordability, availability and quality of care.
Papush will lead data and analytics strategy for Cigna at a time when the insurer is attempting to swallow pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts. The planned $67 billion acquisition, which includes about $15 billion in Express Scripts debt, is expected to close this year if it passes scrutiny with antitrust regulators. Shareholders from both companies have signed off on the deal.
Glenview Capital CEO Larry Robbins, a Cigna and Express Scripts investor, has said that with greater scale from the merger and better data analytics, member costs can be lowered as much as 5% per member per month.
Cigna’s Hocevar, in announcing Papush's appointment, said: “As our industry evolves, embedding insights and analytics across the enterprise will enhance Cigna’s ability to more rapidly deliver simplified, affordable, personalized and integrated experiences for our customers and clients."
