Employees Know "Every Step Counts"
For the 16th year in a row, health service company CIGNA (NYSE:CI) is the national health care sponsor for the March of Dimes' March for Babies.
Over the past 15 years, CIGNA's walkers and corporate fund-raising efforts have raised more than $25 million to help mothers have healthy, full–term pregnancies and reduce the number of pre-term births.
CIGNA and its employees are also celebrating this year's sweet sixteen with fundraisers at the company's offices throughout the country. CIGNA workers and their friends will walk in March for Babies events and raise money to further the March of Dimes' mission of helping families have stronger, healthier babies. Team CIGNA's theme is "Every Step Counts."
"A sweet sixteen birthday party is a time to celebrate how much a child has grown. Since CIGNA started as a national sponsor of March of Dimes' March for Babies, education and medicine have progressed to help more mothers carry more babies to full term. That's an accomplishment worth celebrating," said Dr. Jeffrey Kang, CIGNA's chief medical officer and a member of the board of the CIGNA Foundation, CIGNA's charitable entity. "Still, there is so much work to do to help ease the social, emotional and economic stress that comes with babies being born prematurely."
CIGNA supports March for Babies to ease the toll premature birth takes on everyone it touches. Along with the strain parents face if they must leave their newborn in the hospital, and the struggles premature babies can face throughout life, maternity costs for a premature infant are four times as high as those for an infant born without complications. Total costs are $64,713 for a pre-term baby versus $15,047 for a full term baby, according to the March of Dimes.1 Employers are also impacted by the added costs they bear and productivity lost when mothers miss work to care for their pre-term babies.2
"CIGNA is a valued team member helping the March of Dimes get people information they need to prepare for healthy births, even well before pregnancy, and throughout the first few years of babies' lives," said Dr. Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes. "The money CIGNA and its employees raise -- and the education the company supplies its people -- supports our efforts to help families have stronger, healthier babies."
To help kick off this year's March for Babies events, CIGNA executives will join March for Babies Chairperson and television personality Sherri Shepherd to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time March 1.
1 The Cost of Prematurity to U.S. Employers, 2008, March of Dimes, http://marchofdimes.com/peristats/pdfdocs/cts/ThomsonAnalysis2008_SummaryDocument_final121208.pdf.
2 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2002 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, prepared by March of Dimes Perinatal Data Center, 2004.
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 46 million people throughout the United States and around the world. People covered by a CIGNA dental plan can choose their dentists from one of the largest dental HMO and dental PPO networks in the United States. To learn more about CIGNA, visit www.cigna.com. To sign up for email alerts or an RSS feed of company news, log on to http://newsroom.cigna.com/rss/. Also, follow us on Twitter: @cignatweets.
CIGNA Foundation is a private foundation funded by contributions from CIGNA Corporation and its subsidiaries. The CIGNA Foundation supports organizations sharing its commitment to enhancing the health of individuals and families, and the well-being of their communities, with a special focus on those communities where CIGNA employees live and work.
The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. With chapters nationwide and its premier event, March for Babies, the March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. March for Babies events happen in more than 900 communities all across the United States. Most occur the last weekend of April. To join an event near you, visit marchforbabies.org. For the latest resources and information, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.
Contacts:
CIGNA
Judy Hartling, 860-632-8382
judy.hartling@cigna.com
