Addressing health care disparities through culturally appropriate service

Demetrius Navarro is a fourth-generation Mexican American, native Texan, and owner of Navarro Insurance Group in Houston, TX. After 24 years of health insurance consulting, Navarro is pleased to finally see innovation in health insurance to provide Spanish-speaking Americans options that fit their needs – that is what he has found in UnitedHealthcare's PlanBien program. PlanBien offers a host of linguistically and culturally relevant health information and customer service programs tailored to meet the unique health care needs of Hispanics.

Too often, Hispanic-owned companies and workers have poor or no health insurance coverage. With PlanBien, Navarro says, "We are able to go out and design a plan to reach a group of employees who have typically never been covered."

"[UnitedHealthcare] is really taking the initiative to innovate their marketing materials and really target the Hispanic population and the community. There's no other company that's doing what UnitedHealthcare is doing on a grassroots basis like this."

For the Hispanic community, UnitedHealthcare's PlanBien "needs to be a continuing communication and education effort to get the impact we're looking for in health and well-being."

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