10 connected strategy in the health insurance industry legacy system to store these data, even in cases where regulations or legal concerns are not an issue, facilitating the exchange of data between the two parties is a process that may take years, due to operational challenges. Second, despite Aetna’s attempt to differentiate its product through increased customer interactions, the structure of its op- erations as a B2B business presents further challenges towards becoming a connected company. Intermediaries in the industry, such as brokers, are more interested in present- ing employers with standardized plans based on coverage and price, whereas connected strategies targeting members who are employees of those B2B clients may get lost in the shuffle. While Aetna has tried to alleviate this concern by bringing brokers and employer representatives into its “knowledge centers” to explain its differentiated strategies, it remains to be seen to what extent Aetna’s connected strategy with end-consumers will work in a B2B setting. cigna Cigna has employed a strategy of acquisitions and strategic investments to build their capabilities in personalized recommendations, virtual care delivery, and at-home de- livery. In time, these capabilities have the potential to increase the level of interaction between Cigna and its end-consumers, who may regard Cigna as an increasingly trusted partner along the health system supply chain. Traditionally, Cigna, like other legacy insurance companies, dealt more with healthcare providers and businesses that provide employees’ insurance instead of dealing with the end-customers themselves. If it did deal with the customer at all, it was merely to allow the customer to access claims data or talk to a Cigna representative in order to dispute claims. Yet as health-tech players emerged in the insurance sector, Cigna started to move to- wards developing more connected strategies in order to have continuous interactions with subsets of its members. Cigna partnered with healthcare providers through its Connected Care program, which aims to engage customers by providing them with the right tools to improve their well-being and aligning their goals with that of healthcare providers in order to provide member services besides reimbursement.25 For example, Cigna applied its Connected Care tool for Hepatitis C with great success in terms of achieving a 98.4% cure rate.26 The strategy involved, among others, comprehensive 25 https://s27.q4cdn.com/742843823/files/doc_financial/annual/2019/cigna-2019-annual-report.pdf 26 https://www.cigna.com/about-us/newsroom/news-and-views/press-releases/2015/cignas-connected-care-approach- for-customers-with-hepatitis-c-achieves-984-percent-real-world-cure-rates