Cigna Reports $1 Billion Profit On Strong Evernorth Pharmacy Performance

Cigna reported $1.1 billion net income for the fourth quarter of last year aided by the company’s Evernorth health services business which manages pharmacy benefits.

Evernorth, which includes the pharmacy benefit management company Cigna bought with its 2018 acquisition of Express Scripts, helped boost the company’s total revenue 10% to $45.7 billion and ahead of analysts’ expectations compared to $41.7 billion in the year-ago period, the company said Thursday in its fourth quarter 2021 earnings report. Cigna’s net income was down 73% from last year’s fourth quarter, which included the after tax gain of $3.2 billion from the 2020 sale of its group disability and life business.

Still, Cigna’s diversified portfolio, which includes commercial and government lines of health insurance as well as healthcare services under the Evernorth umbrella are helping to grow the company.

In particular, Cigna said the “pharmacy customer base at the end of 2021 grew to 107.3 million, an organic increase of 8.4 million year to date, driven by strong ongoing retention and new sales.” That helped increase pharmacy revenues, which are the biggest part of total company sales, by 14% to $32.3 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, the report showed.

Meanwhile, total medical customers in Cigna’s health plans grew 3% to 17.1 million, an increase of 431,000 customers year to date. That helped boost premium revenue by 8% to $9.5 billion.

Cigna chairman and chief executive David Cordani vowed to continue to grow the company’s diverse portfolio of healthcare businesses this year. “2022 will be a year of growth across our franchise as we continue innovating and advancing our work to make health care more affordable, predictable, and simple,” Cordani said in a statement.