CYPRESS, Calif. (May 28, 2009) – PlanBien, an innovative health plan by UnitedHealthcare that combines health care coverage with unique services designed to help enhance the health and well-being of Spanish-speaking individuals and their families, is now available in California.

PlanBien transcends traditional health plans with a host of linguistically and culturally relevant health-information and customer-service programs tailored to meet the unique health care needs of Latinos.  These include: a bilingual provider directory that lists physician offices with Spanish-speaking doctors and/or staff; Spanish-speaking customer service representatives to answer questions and help plan participants locate Spanish-speaking doctors; and specialized educational materials printed in Spanish including ¿Que le dijo el doctor? (What did the doctor tell you?).

PlanBien is available to businesses, labor organizations and public-sector entities in select markets in California.

“Our goal in developing PlanBien is to enhance UnitedHealthcare’s quality and cost-effective health benefit plans with innovative support services that help address two growing areas of concern,” said Russell Bennett, vice president of Latino Health Solutions at UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company.  “First is the need to reduce the rate of the uninsured among the Latino population, and second is the effort to help Latinos – many of whom communicate more comfortably in Spanish – better understand their health benefits and become more engaged in their health care.  We believe PlanBien can make a positive impact on both fronts.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Latinos comprise America’s fastest-growing work force, which is projected to grow 34 percent nationwide by 2014.  Also, data published by the Yankelovich Hispanic Monitor indicate that the majority of Latinos prefer to receive health care information in Spanish. 

“Employers and organizations are increasingly aware that their employees and members reflect a very diverse society and, as such, demand more than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ health plan,” said Bennett.  “UnitedHealthcare’s PlanBien is tailor-made for businesses and organizations with Spanish-speaking employees who may speak English at work but prefer to speak Spanish at home or when dealing with complex or personal topics like their health or health care benefits.”

More information about PlanBien, including additional bilingual resources such as wellness tools and health-related articles, are available at UnitedHealthcare’s bilingual (English/Spanish) Web site, www.uhclatino.com.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies.  The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of more than 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with approximately 590,000 physicians and care professionals and more than 4,900 hospitals 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.