2008 GROSS REVENUE: $547.0 million

EMPLOYEES: 150 (assigned to EAP services)

Continuously monitoring employers' needs and trying to stay ahead of emerging challenges is one way CIGNA Behavioral Health Inc. distinguishes itself among employee assistance program providers, said Jodi Prohofsky, senior vp of health management operations.

“As an employer ourselves and employees of a large company, we clearly understand there are pressures from the economy and from within a company for continued improvement in productivity and better outcome,” she said.

CIGNA was named best EAP provider in the Business Insurance 2009 Readers Choice Awards, the fifth consecutive year it has won the honor. Among the many EAP programs that CIGNA offers to employer clients is counseling for employees trying to deal with the challenges arising from the recession, she said.

Employees can get counseling for stress, financial planning, parenting advice, elderly care and other issues from licensed clinicians.

Workers also have access to “critical incident stress debriefing” for those who are dealing with layoffs to anything the employee defines as a “crisis,” Ms. Prohofsky said.

With many companies looking to cut costs, she said CIGNA tries to persuade employers of the value of an EAP through annual employee surveys. The average employee who uses the EAP reports that the program saves about 6.5 hours of work per service, according to that survey. For example, a worker who needs to find a new day-care provider can call the EAP to get referrals based on their criteria and budget.

“So when they go on their lunch hour to look at day-care (providers), they can look at three that are ready to take their children, as opposed to spending all that time on the Internet,” Ms. Prohofsky said.

Meanwhile, in its annual survey of clients and their employees, 98.7% of respondents said they are very satisfied with CIGNA, Ms. Prohofsky said. That has been within one percentage point of that score for each of the past 10 years, she said.

“One of our philosophies has always been, no matter how high that number is, we should always be asking ourselves how we can do better,” she said.