HOUSTON (June 24, 2008) – Houston-area Asian-American communities and their businesses now have a new health care benefit option through the UnitedHealthcare Asian American Program.

The Asian American Program combines UnitedHealthcare medical plans including preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) with a host of products and services – at no extra cost – designed to meet Asian Americans’ unique health care needs. 

These include: in-language health educational information; employer/broker service phone lines; medical benefit summaries; and online resources available at www.uhcasian.com, where customers have access to numerous health management programs, comprehensive benefit information and discounts on various wellness products including acupuncture services, hearing tests and devices, and LASIK eye surgery.  In addition, customers can find online provider and facility directories listing in-network, local Asian-language-speaking physicians.

Participants enrolled in Asian American Program health plans have access to UnitedHealthcare’s nationwide network of more than 560,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,800 hospitals.

“In developing the UnitedHealthcare Asian American Program, we enhanced our quality and cost-effective health benefit plans with innovative support services that help address two growing areas of concern: the need to reduce the rate of uninsured among Asian Americans; and the effort to help Asians – many of whom prefer to communicate in their native languages – better understand their benefits and become more engaged in their health care.  We believe the Asian American Program can make a positive impact on both fronts,” said Christopher Law, vice president of Asian Initiatives at UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company. 

Recent census data indicate that Asian Americans are more likely to be uninsured than Caucasians – 15.5 percent vs. 10.8 percent, respectively.  This is due primarily to increasing health care costs and a lack of employer-sponsored health benefit coverage.  Also, according to the U.S. Census data, nearly 6 percent of Houston’s population is Asian American, and about 40 percent of Texas’ Asian Americans live in Houston.  In addition, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, Texas ranks third nationwide in the number of Asian-owned businesses, at more than 78,000.

In expanding the Asian American Program to the Houston-area market, UnitedHealthcare conducted a comprehensive study through broker and employer interviews and consumer focus groups.

“We found that business owners want affordable health plans, excellent broker customer service and easy access to Asian-American doctors and specialists,” said Amber Jia, UnitedHealthcare director of Asian American Markets.  “Consumers want health care services from native-speaking providers and more in-language services that help them become more engaged in their health care.  Asian-American brokers emphasized the need to communicate more effectively with employers and consumers about the various types of health plans.  Overall, each group stated that in-language material and linguistically competent customer service staff are essential.”

In order to work more closely with the Asian-American community in Houston, UnitedHealthcare launched product information seminars and expanded its National Asian Broker Service Unit to further assist brokers who serve Asian-American businesses and consumers.

“Growing strong broker relationships is the vital link between insurers and consumers in the Asian-American marketplace,” said Jia.  “At UnitedHealthcare, we are committed to empowering brokers with tools and programs that help foster better communication among all stakeholders and provide Houston-area Asian Americans with linguistically and culturally sensitive health care benefit plans and services.”

The National Asian Broker Service Unit is available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST Monday through Friday at 800-303-9456 (Chinese) or 800-250-5779 (South Asian).  It provides in-language and culturally relevant sales support, product training and assistance with medical underwriting and policy, billing and eligibility issues.  Insurance professionals fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi are trained to help brokers meet their clients’ unique health care needs.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services. The company organizes access to quality, affordable healthcare services on behalf of more than 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 560,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,800 hospitals nationwide to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide.  UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.