UnitedHealthcare Charter Plan Announcement

Charter health plan provides access to Kelsey-Seybold's accountable care organization of primary care physicians, specialists and hospital partnersKelsey-Seybold care providers work together to coordinate patient care, improve quality and lower costs

Houston (November 6, 2014) – UnitedHealthcare is introducing Charter, a new health benefits plan that gives Houston-area employers and their employees access to care provided by Kelsey-Seybold, the nation's first accredited accountable care organization (ACO) designed to improve care while helping to reduce costs.

Employers that choose the Charter plan have access to Kelsey-Seybold's network of physicians and hospital partners, who will manage all aspects of patient care, providing the right care in the right place at the right time.

Charter is available to employers with 51 plus employees with plan effective dates beginning Jan. 1, 2015 and small employers with 2-50 employees with plan effective dates beginning April 1, 2015. Employees enrolled in the plan will select a Kelsey-Seybold primary care physician who will be responsible for coordinating all of their care. Plan participants can access all Kelsey-Seybold primary care and specialty care physicians without a referral.

"Houston-area employers have asked us for a health plan that provides access to quality care but is cost-effective," said Dave Milich, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of South Texas. "UnitedHealthcare's new Charter plan answers that need and shows that quality care can often be more affordable care. We look forward to providing Houston-area employers and consumers access to Kelsey-Seybold's distinctive care model that improves quality and reduces costs."

"Kelsey-Seybold Clinic has a long history of working collaboratively with UnitedHealthcare, and this new plan gives us the opportunity to work even more closely together," said Spencer Berthelsen, chairman and managing director, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. "The new Charter health plan is another way we will help improve coordination of care for patients in the Houston area while lowering employers' medical costs."

Kelsey-Seybold care providers will focus on prevention, improved coordination and well-managed care through their fully integrated multispecialty physician practice, the nation's first NCQA-Accredited Accountable Care Organization.

Kelsey-Seybold physicians and hospital partners can improve coordination of a patient's care and facilitate better communication with everyone involved in a patient's treatment. All Kelsey-Seybold physicians are connected to each other – and to their patients – through an electronic medical records system where each patient's critical medical information is securely accessible to all physicians on their care team.

This means that regardless of which Kelsey doctor patients are seeing, decisions about their care and treatment are being made based on their personal medical history. Patients can access Kelsey-Seybold's secure patient portal – MyKelseyOnline.com – to review most test results, make appointments, email their primary care physician' office and request refills on prescriptions.

UnitedHealthcare serves more than 3.9 million Texans with a care provider network of 520 hospitals and more than 52,000 physicians statewide.

Nationwide, nearly $35 billion of UnitedHealthcare's annual physician and hospital reimbursements are tied to accountable care programs, centers of excellence and performance-based programs. The company projects this will reach $65 billion by 2018. For more information about UnitedHealthcare's accountable care initiatives, visit www.AccountableCareAnswers.com.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 800,000 physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. Globally, UnitedHealthcare serves 45 million people in health benefits and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.