United Healthcare 2008 Annual Report Download - page 13

and AmeriChoice businesses. The consolidated purchasing capacity represented by the individuals UnitedHealth
Group serves makes it possible for UnitedHealthcare to contract for cost-effective access to a large number of
conveniently located care professionals. Directly or through UnitedHealth Group’s family of companies,
UnitedHealthcare offers:
• A comprehensive range of benefit plans integrating medical, ancillary and alternative care products so
customers can choose benefits that are right for them;
• Affordability across a broad set of price points and a wide product line, from offerings covering essential
needs to comprehensive benefit plans, all of which offer access to our broad-based proprietary network of
contracted physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals with economic benefits reflective of the
aggregate purchasing capacity of our organization;
• Innovative clinical programs that are built around an extensive clinical data set and the principles of
evidence-based medicine;
• Consumer access to information about physician and hospital performance against quality and cost
efficiency criteria based on claims data assessment through the UnitedHealth Premium program;
• Physician and facility access to performance feedback information to support continuous quality
improvement;
• Care facilitation services that use several identification tools, including proprietary predictive technology to
identify individuals with significant gaps in care and unmet needs or risks for potential health problems, and
then facilitate appropriate interventions;
• Disease and condition management programs to help individuals address significant, complex disease states;
and
• Convenient self-service tools for health transactions and information.
UnitedHealthcare’s regional and national access to broad, affordable and quality networks of health care
professionals has advanced over the past several years, with significant increases in access to services throughout
the United States. UnitedHealthcare has also organized health care alliances with select regional not-for-profit
health plans to facilitate greater customer access and affordability.
We believe that UnitedHealthcare’s innovation distinguishes its product offerings from its competition. Its
consumer-oriented health benefits and services value individual choice and control in accessing health care.
UnitedHealthcare has programs that provide health education, admission counseling before hospital stays, care
advocacy to help avoid delays in patients’ stays in the hospital, support for individuals at risk of needing
intensive treatment and coordination of care for people with chronic conditions. Data-driven networks and
clinical management are organized around clinical lines of service such as cardiology; congenital heart disease;
kidney disease; oncology; neuroscience; orthopedics; spine; women’s health; primary care and transplantation to
provide consumers with the necessary resources and information to make more informed choices when managing
their health. UnitedHealthcare also offers comprehensive and integrated pharmaceutical management services
that achieve lower costs by using formulary programs that drive better unit costs for drugs, benefit designs that
encourage consumers to use drugs that offer better value and outcomes, and physician and consumer programs
that support the appropriate use of drugs based on clinical evidence.
UnitedHealthcare provides innovative programs that enable consumers to take ownership and control of their
health care benefits. These products include high-deductible consumer-driven benefit plans coupled with health
reimbursement accounts (HRAs), or health savings accounts (HSAs), and are offered on a self-funded and fully
insured basis. UnitedHealthcare provided these products to approximately 24,000 group health plans, including
approximately 150 employers in the large group self-funded market serviced by the UnitedHealthcare National
Accounts teams.
UnitedHealthcare’s distribution system consists primarily of brokers and direct and internet sales in the
individual market; brokers in the small employer group market; and brokers and other consultant-based or direct
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