Cigna Timely Filing Limit: 90 Days, Even for Corrected Claims

Cigna Healthcare’s filing limit fits on one line. Participating providers get 90 days after the date of service. Out of network providers get 180.

Cigna’s claims page sets it out as a two row table: “A participating health care provider” gets “90 days after the date of service,” and “An out-of-network provider” gets “180 days after the date of service.”

The number is the easy part. What trips people up is when the clock starts, and the fact that it doesn’t restart for a correction you send on your own.

Cigna timely filing at a glance

How to count the days

The clock starts on the date of service and runs in calendar days. For a hospital stay or any other run of consecutive days, Cigna says “the limit will be counted from the last date of service.”

Two of those dates fall on a weekend. Cigna’s pages don’t promise an extra day when that happens, so send the claim before the weekend.

What counts is the claim reaching Cigna. A claim your clearinghouse rejected never got there, and its clock kept running. Check rejection reports every day, not once a week.

When Cigna is the secondary payer

The clock starts over. Cigna’s rule: “In Coordination of Benefits situations, timely filing is determined from the processing date indicated on the primary carrier’s explanation of benefits (EOB) or explanation of payment (EOP).”

Note the date it names. It is the day the primary payer processed the claim, not the day its remittance reached you. If the primary processed a claim on Monday, April 20, an in network secondary claim to Cigna is due by Sunday, July 19.

On an electronic claim, Evernorth’s claim submission course for Cigna claims says to enter the primary payer’s ERA or EOP details in the claim itself, so you don’t need to attach the EOP. Evernorth is Cigna’s sister company.

When Medicare is primary, check the Medicare remittance first. The same course says these secondary claims already arrive straight from Medicare. Remark code MA18 on the Medicare ERA means the claim was forwarded, and you don’t need to send it again.

Corrected claims run on the same clock

This is the rule that catches people. Cigna’s policy says: “If a resubmission is not a Cigna Healthcare request, and is not being submitted as an appeal, the filing limit will apply.”

So a correction you send on your own has to reach Cigna within the original 90 days of the date of service, or 180 out of network. The clock doesn’t restart when the first claim pays.

There is one exception. If the claim was on time and Cigna asked for more information, the resubmission counts as timely.

Send a correction as a replacement claim. On an electronic claim, that means frequency code 7 to replace the claim or 8 to void it, with Cigna’s original claim number. Evernorth’s course says the frequency code is how a claim is read as a correction “instead of as a duplicate claim submission.”

Corrected claims go to the claim address on the back of the patient’s ID card, not to the appeals unit. Cigna’s online reconsideration tool won’t take them either. Its guide says, “Please do not upload new or corrected claims.”

Once the filing limit has passed, the wording of the policy points to an appeal, which runs on its own 180 days. Call Cigna to confirm before you count on that route.

Reconsiderations and appeals

For a claim denied or paid wrong because of a coding edit, start with a reconsideration. Cigna says a CignaforHCP.com or Provider.Evernorth.com user with claims/reconsideration access “can submit a reconsideration request on the claim.” Cigna’s step by step guide puts a simple adjustment or reconsideration at “five to 10 business days.”

An appeal has a firm window. Cigna’s rule: “Submit the appeal within 180 calendar days of the date of the initial payment or denial notice or, if the appeal relates to a payment that was adjusted by Cigna Healthcare, within 180 calendar days from the date of the last payment adjustment.”

Send three things together:

• The Request for Health Care Professional Payment Review form, or a letter that says it is a health care professional appeal.
• A copy of the original claim and its EOB or EOP.
• Your supporting documents, such as medical records or an operative report.

Appeals can also go in online, with the right portal access.

On timing, Cigna says “The review will be completed in 60 days,” and that you’ll hear the result “within 75 business days of receipt of the original dispute.”

If you still disagree after the final internal decision, arbitration has to be requested “within one year of the date of the letter communicating the final internal level review decision.”

California is different. Cigna’s appeals page says: “In California, health care providers have a different set of policies and procedures for resolving disputes.” It links them from the same page.

Proof that a claim was on time

Cigna’s pages don’t say what proof it accepts. The strongest record is the payer acknowledgment, the 277CA, which shows that Cigna accepted the claim and when. A 999 from your clearinghouse only proves the clearinghouse got your file. The proof of timely filing guide covers both.

A claim Cigna counts as late comes back as CO-29. The CO-29 post covers which of those can be won and how.

Don’t move the balance to the patient. Cigna: “Your contract with Cigna Healthcare prohibits balance billing your patient if claims are denied because they were not submitted within the time frame outlined above.”

When you get longer than 90 days

• State law. Cigna’s first exception is when “Applicable law requires a longer filing period.” Texas, for example, gives preferred providers until the 95th day after the date of service on the plans that law covers. State rules generally reach fully insured plans, not self funded employer plans, and Cigna administers many self funded plans.
• Your contract. The second is a provider agreement that “specifically allows for additional time.” Check yours before you write a claim off.
• Extraordinary circumstances. Cigna’s example is a natural disaster, and it “may request appropriate evidence of extraordinary circumstances that prevented timely submission.”

Behavioral health claims through Evernorth

Evernorth Behavioral Health runs behavioral health benefits for Cigna plans. It is part of the same company, and the claims go to the same place: Evernorth’s claim submission course lists payer ID 62308 for medical, behavioral and dental claims.

The limits are the same too. The course gives participating providers 90 days after the date of service and everyone else 180.

Behavioral appeals have their own address: Evernorth Behavioral Health, Central Appeals Unit, PO Box 188064, Chattanooga, TN 37422. Evernorth’s appeal guide says “In most cases your appeal should be submitted within 180 days,” and some plans allow longer.

Cigna’s Medicare plans are now HealthSpring

Cigna sold its Medicare Advantage, Cigna Supplemental Benefits, Medicare Part D and CareAllies businesses to Health Care Service Corporation, or HCSC. The sale closed on March 19, 2025.

For 2026, those Medicare Advantage plans carry the HealthSpring name. HealthSpring’s provider notice says “Our payer ID will remain 52192,” and gives a new paper claims address: PO Box 23456, Chattanooga, TN 37421.

So a HealthSpring card follows HealthSpring’s rules, not the Cigna rules above. Check its provider manual and your contract for the filing limit. Older Cigna resource pages still describe Medicare rules for Cigna HealthCare for Seniors. They predate the sale.

Before you file

• Read the ID card. A Cigna card, a GWH-Cigna or G card, an Evernorth behavioral benefit and a HealthSpring card each change where the claim or appeal goes.
• Set the start date by the right event. The date of service, the last day of a stay, or the primary payer’s processing date.
• Correct early. Inside the filing limit, a correction is a routine replacement claim. After it, you are into appeals.
• Work rejections daily. A claim the clearinghouse rejected never reached Cigna.
• Keep the 277CA for every claim. It’s the record that wins a CO-29 on a claim that was on time.

Comparing payers? The UnitedHealthcare, UMR and Optum behavioral health guides cover their rules the same way.

Sources

• Cigna Healthcare, Claims Submission, Payments, and Filing.
• Cigna Healthcare, Appeals and Disputes Policy and Procedures.
• Cigna Healthcare, Request for Health Care Professional Payment Review.
• Cigna, Instructions to Submit Appeals and Claim Reconsiderations Online, updated March 2021.
• Evernorth, Electronic Claim Submission course, 2021.
• Evernorth Behavioral Health, Guide for Requesting an Appeal.
• The Cigna Group, Completes Sale of Medicare Businesses to HCSC, March 19, 2025.
• HealthSpring, Benefit Plans Are Rolling Out for 2026, provider news, November 2025.
• Texas Insurance Code, Section 1301.102.

Reference information only. Not billing advice. Filing limits change, and your contract or state law may set different ones. Confirm with Cigna Healthcare, Evernorth or HealthSpring before you rely on a date.