Cigna’s stop-loss insurance business is on track to complete its margin recovery next year, with the company having implemented “sizable price increases” in 2026 to address elevated costs, incoming CEO and current president and COO Brian Evanko said at the Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference on May 13.
“2027 will be the final year of the margin recovery on our stop-loss portfolio,” Mr. Evanko said, characterizing the repricing efforts as roughly two-thirds complete this year. He added that client retention has held up despite the scale of the price increases.
“One of the things I’ve been really pleased with is the retention of our clients despite those higher than historical price increases that have been necessary in the stop-loss book,” he said.
Cigna disclosed in early 2025 that higher-than-expected stop-loss costs in the fourth quarter of 2024 were driven by rising utilization of specialty drugs such as Keytruda and Ocrevus, as well as high-acuity surgical procedures including oncology and cardiac cases. The cost acceleration intensified late in the year, after much of the 2025 renewal pricing had already been locked in, limiting the company’s ability to respond in time for the next plan year.
The company said at the time it expected to recapture stop-loss margins over approximately two years. The insurer’s stop-loss premiums reached $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up from nearly $1.9 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Cigna is the largest stop-loss underwriter in the world, with approximately $8 billion in annual stop-loss premiums.
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