CLEVELAND, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 1, 2006, employees of Cuyahoga County and Wayne County received a New Year’s present in the form of a new healthcare agreement between the counties and UnitedHealthcare, allowing them to choose their in-network healthcare provider from all the major hospitals in the Cleveland and Akron areas for the first time in years.
In Cuyahoga County, employees can now choose discounted access from The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals or MetroHealth Systems, Akron General Hospital and Summa Health System. With UnitedHealthcare, employees can make the best decision for their family’s care based on their needs, not according to an insurance company’s rules.
To date, more than 7,000 Cuyahoga County employees and their dependents and almost 2,000 employees and their dependents of Wayne County have signed up with UnitedHealthcare.
“For the first time in more than a decade, Cuyahoga County employees have one carrier that gives them preferred access to all of the major hospitals, unlike before where they had to choose between one or the other,” said Dennis Madden, County Administrator for Cuyahoga County. “Our agreement with UnitedHealthcare gives employees broad and open access, with no primary care doctor as a prerequisite to receiving specialized care.”
In addition to a complete PPO offering, Wayne County employees now have access to increasingly popular Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). An HSA is a tax-advantaged, interest-bearing account that combines high deductible health insurance with a tax-favored savings account. Money in the savings account helps pay the deductible and once the deductible is met, the insurance starts paying. Money left in the savings account earns interest and is the employee’s to keep, even if he or she changes jobs or retires. Wayne County employees can also receive “wellness credits,” which are actual dollars placed in these HSA accounts, if employees meet certain wellness criteria, such as low blood pressure, cholesterol within an accepted range or an appropriate body mass index.
The Wayne County Commissioners gave a collective assessment of this new agreement, saying: “We anticipate that UnitedHealthcare will strengthen our ability to support the vision we have for health care with consumer driven products and engagement tools, like their Health Savings Accounts and myuhc.com website. We are particularly desirous to take advantage of UnitedHealthcare’s ability to provide consultative advice and support our wellness initiatives that encourage our employees to stay healthy.”
Another benefit to Cuyahoga and Wayne County employees is UnitedHealthcare’s seamless national network and one ID card nationwide for employees that travel and, dependents who are out-of-state or abroad.
These County employees are the most recent benefactors of UnitedHealthcare continued success in serving the public sector. Since 2005, UnitedHealthcare gained more than 480,000 new public sector members in places including Ohio, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
“These two counties joined many others nationwide because UnitedHealthcare has made a national commitment to giving public sector employees broad access to affordable, high-quality healthcare,” said Tom Sullivan, CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Northern Ohio. “Because public sector employees often stay with their employer for most of their career, wellness advice and access to information regarding their healthcare are particularly important.”
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (http://www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services, helping 24 million individual consumers nationwide achieve improved health and well-being through various health service systems. UnitedHealthcare arranges access to quality, affordable care with more than 470,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,600 hospitals across America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group , a diversified Fortune50 health and well-being company. Questions about UnitedHealthcare’s public sector solutions can be directed to Lisa Chapman-Smith, Vice President of Public Sector sales for Ohio at 216-420-9491.
UnitedHealthcare
CONTACT: Debora Spano of UnitedHealthcare, +1-401-732-7374, ordspano@uhc.com
Web site: http://www.unitedhealthcare.com/
