Cigna’s Demand for Mid-Pandemic Medical Exam Draws Benefits Suit

An Arizona nurse filed a federal lawsuit against Cigna Corp. subsidiary Life Insurance Co. of North America seeking disability benefits and accusing the insurer of aggressively demanding unsafe in-person medical evaluations during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to manufacture bad-faith reasons for denying legitimate claims.

Jennifer Ahring’s lawsuit, filed Jan. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, claims Cigna refused to approve her for continued long-term disability benefits because of her respiratory disease without first subjecting her to an in-person medical exam.

Ahring—who says her respiratory disease forces her to engage in extreme social distancing during ...