UnitedHealth group
It is Incorporated NYSE UNH is a diversified
managed health care company headquartered in Minnetonka ,
Minnesota , USA
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
