UnitedHealth Group Inc. is a diversified managed health care company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S. It is No. 14 on Fortune magazine's top 500 companies in the United States.[5] UnitedHealth Group offers a spectrum of products and services through two operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare and Optum. Through its family of subsidiaries and divisions, UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 70 million individuals nationwide. In 2011, the company posted a net earnings of $5.142 billion.[4]
UnitedHealth Group is the parent of UnitedHealthcare, the largest single health carrier in the United States.[6] It was created in 1977, as UnitedHealthCare Corporation (it was renamed in 1998), but traces its origin to a firm it acquired in 1977, Charter Med Incorporated, which was founded in 1974. In 1979, it introduced the first network-based health plan for seniors. In 1984, it became a publicly traded company.
In 2011, J.D. Power and Associates gave UnitedHealthcare the highest employer satisfaction rating for self-insured health plans.[7] UnitedHealthcare also received high marks from the American Medical Association (AMA) in its 2011 National Health Insurance Report Card.[8] The fourth annual report card evaluated seven national health insurance companies on the timeliness and accuracy of their claims processing based on a variety of payment, approval and process metrics. UnitedHealthcare moved into the top spot among its industry peers on two metrics: Contracted Fee Schedule Match Rate, which indicates how often an insurer's claim payment matches the contracted fee schedule; and Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Accuracy, which measures the rate at which the insurer's allowed amount equals the physician practice's expected allowed amount.
In a 2010 insurance industry publication, Business Insurance (magazine), UnitedHealthcare was named "Readers Choice" winner in 2010 for "Best health plan provider".[9] In contrast, a 2010 survey of hospital executives who have dealt with the company, United received a 65% unfavorable rating. While this marks a 33% improvement over the prior year's survey, UnitedHealthcare still ranked last among all listed.[10]
