Health Organization Case Study - Essay Example

In the year 2011, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated showed total net earnings of $5.142 billion. UnitedHealth Group is the holding company of the UnitedHealthcare, and is the largest and chief health carrier all over the United States of America. The company was formed in the year 1977 and was initially called the United HealthCare Corporation. The name was changed again in the year 1998, but even the new name has its origin based in a firm that the UnitedHealth Group acquired back in the year 1977 which was called the Charter Med Incorporated and was formed in the year 1974.

It was in 1979, that the UnitedHealth introduced their first network-based health plan targeting the seniors citizens in America the company became a publicly traded one in 1984. UnitedHealthcare was very recently given the highest rating in the area of employer satisfaction for all self-insured health plan companies by J.D. Power and Associates. The company also received top ratings in 2011 from the American Medical Association (AMA) in the National Health Insurance Report Card published by the AMA.

This fourth annual report card published by the American Medical Association assessed seven different national health insurance companies on the criterion of both timeliness as well as the accuracy of their claims basing their evaluation on different metrics like the assortment of payment made to the companies, and some process metrics. UnitedHealthcare also moved to the top spot amongst all of its industry peers on the two metrics: concerning Contracted Fee Schedule Match Rate and Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Accuracy.

Contracted Fee Schedule Match Rate basically is an indicator of how often the insurer's claim payment tallies the fee schedule put down in the initial contract. Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Accuracy is the measure of the rate at which the amount allowed by the insurer actually equals to the expected allowed payment of the physician’s services. In a more recent publication of the health insurance industry called the ‘Business Insurance’, UnitedHealthcare was called the "readers choice" winner for the year 2010 in the category of "Best health plan provider".

In contrast to all these ratings, UnitedHealthcare was given a 65% unfavorable rating by a group of hospital executives who had on several occasions dealt with UnitedHealthcare on previous occasions. Though this number is quite good and up by about 33% from the rating in 2010, UnitedHealthcare still is at the bottom of all the companied included in the list. As already mentioned, UnitedHealthcare is a recognized leader in the health insurance claim business and it strives to constantly improve on the quality of the services they are offering to their customers and the overall effectiveness of the notion of healthcare for every American citizen.

They want to enhance every individuals reach to health perks and benefits offered by the health insurance companies like theirs. They are striving to constantly create new and innovative health products and services that will make the entire concept of healthcare more affordable to American citizens. They also tend to use technology to make the entire health care system easier to manage and navigate around. The different subsidiaries of the company are constantly coming up with a line up for innovative services and products for an approximate 70 million of its