WellPoint Inc. group health insurance

Type of Insurance Company: Health Insurance


Name of Parent Company: Wellpoint, Inc.


Company Overview:

            Company History: Wellpoint, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company that operates a variety of health care networks and health care management services and provides an array of specialty health care products including disability insurance, dental coverage, vision coverage, and consumer driven health plans and certain life insurance benefits related to its group health coverages. Wellpoint operates through a fleet of over 45 companies and markets its services and products to employers, individuals and seniors. Wellpoint, Inc. emerged from numerous mergers among predecessor companies and was formed from the 2004 merger of Wellpoint Health Networks, Inc.(created from California based Blue Cross organizations) and Anthem, Inc., (which grew out of two Indianapolis based mutual insurers that eventually merged and became Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana). Wellpoint's Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensed subsidiaries and their affiliates provide a comprehensive range of group and individual health benefit, life and disability plans. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana,

WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves its

members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado,

Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City

area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as Blue Cross Blue Shield in 10 New York City metropolitan

and surrounding counties and as Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield in selected upstate counties only),

Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through

UniCare. 

Principal Methods: Wellpoint markets its products through a network of independent agents and brokers as well as through an in-house sales force.

Health Business: WellPoint, Inc. (WellPoint) is a commercial health benefits company serving approximately 34 million medical members as of December 31, 2006. The Company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an association of independent health benefit plans. The Company serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California and as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The Company also serves its members throughout various parts of the United States as UniCare. WellPoint is licensed to conduct insurance operations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico through its subsidiaries. On June 9, 2005, the Company acquired Lumenos, Inc. On December 28, 2005, the Company completed its acquisition of WellChoice, Inc. 

Company Rating:

Best Insurance Reports: 70064

Best Rating: A

(the rating for most of the health subsidiaries)

Company Financial Status:

Ticker Symbol: WLP

Assets & Premiums: Wellpoint's assets at the end of 2006 totaled $51.8 billion and revenues for 2006 were $57.0 billion.

Courtasy : http://insurance.freeadvice.com/reviews/312/info/Wellpoint+Inc./

UnitedHealth group information services

UnitedHealth group

It is Incorporated NYSE UNH is a diversified managed health care company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA. UnitedHealth Group offers a spectrum of products and services through two operating businesses: United Healthcare and Optum. Through its family of subsidiaries and divisions, UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 70 million individuals nationwide. In 2010, the company posted a net income of $4.6 billion.

UnitedHealth Group is the parent of United Healthcare, the largest single health carrier in the United States. 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.

J.D. Power and Associates recently gave UnitedHealthcare the highest employer satisfaction rating for self-insured health plans. UnitedHealthcare also received high marks from the American Medical Association (AMA) in its 2011 National Health Insurance Report Card. 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. And in a recent insurance industry publication, Business Insurance, United was named "readers choice" winner 2010 for "Best health plan provider".To contrast, however, in 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. In 2010, UnitedHealth Group spent more than $1.8 million on lobbying activities to work to achieve favorable legislation, and hired seven different lobbying firms to work on its behalf. In addition, its corporate political action committee or PAC, called "United for Health," spent an additional $1 million on lobbying activities in 2010.

Legal issues

In 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating the conduct of UnitedHealth Group's management and directors, for backdating of stock options. Investigations were also begun by the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, who subpoenaed documents from the company. The investigations came to light after a series of probing stories in the Wall Street Journal in May 2006, discussing apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options by UHC management. The backdating apparently occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, according to the Journal. Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and UHC's other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty. On October 15, 2006, CEO William W. McGuire was forced to resign, and relinquish hundreds of millions of dollars in stock options. On December 6, 2007, the SEC announced a settlement under which McGuire will repay $468 million, as a partial settlement of the backdating prosecution. Legal actions filed by the SEC against UnitedHealth Group itself are still pending.

In June 2006, the American Chiropractic Association filed a national class action lawsuit against the American Chiropractic Network (ACN), which is owned by UnitedHealth Group and administers chiropractic benefits, and against UnitedHealth Group itself, for alleged practices in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

courtesy :  Wikipedia 

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, USA

UnitedHealth Group unites its health plans with consumers across the US. A leading health insurer, it offers a variety of plans and services to group and individual customers nationwide. Its UnitedHealthcare health benefits segment manages HMO, PPO, and POS (point-of-service) plans, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, state-funded, and supplemental vision and dental options. Together, the UnitedHealthcare businesses serve about 38 million members. In addition, UnitedHealth's Optum health services units -- OptumHealth, OptumInsight, and OptumRx -- provide wellness and care management programs, financial services, information technology solutions, and pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services.

                                                                        

Unitedhealth Group Center, 9900 Bren Rd. East   Minnetonka, MN 55343 United States	Phone: 952-936-1300
	Toll Free: 800-328-5979
	Fax: 952-936-1819
	http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com