Did you know that Cigna's law firm hired a spy to attend Nataline Sarkisyan's funeral and report back on any references to the company? As it turned out, the company's name didn't come up, according to Deadly Spin, the tell-all book by Wendell Potter, Cigna's former corporate communications head.
As you may recall, Sarkisyan was the girl who was denied a liver transplant in 2007 because she was considered too sick. Cigna denied her family's first appeal, although her doctors gave her a 65 percent chance of surviving for five more years, Forbes reports. After the story grew with the help of protests organized by the California Nurses Association and protesters picketed Cigna's LA office, the company decided to do something unusual and pay out of its own pocket for the transplant. Unfortunately, the day Cigna shifted its position, Sarkisyan died in the hospital. Article