Since its inception, UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated companies have led the marketplace by introducing key innovations that make health care services more accessible and affordable for customers, improve the quality and coordination of health care services, and help individuals and their physicians make more informed health care decisions.
| Time Line of Selected Corporate Highlights and Innovations |
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| 1974 |
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Charter Med Incorporated is founded by a group of physicians and other health care professionals who want to expand health coverage options for consumers.
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| 1977 |
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United HealthCare Corporation is created and acquires Charter Med Incorporated.
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| 1979 |
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United HealthCare Corporation introduces the first network-based health plan for seniors and participates in the earliest experiments with offering private-market alternatives for Medicare.
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| 1984 |
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United HealthCare Corporation becomes a publicly traded company.
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| 1988 |
| United HealthCare
incorporates the first pharmacy benefits management company, Diversified
Pharmaceutical Services Inc. |
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| 1989 |
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William W. McGuire, M.D., assumes leadership of the company. Annual revenues are just over $400 million.
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| 1992 |
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United HealthCare is the first company to produce a Report Card on health care access, quality and cost measures.
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| 1994 |
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Diversified Pharmaceutical Services Inc. is sold to SmithKline Beecham Corporation for $2.3 billion.
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| 1995 |
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The company acquires The MetraHealth Companies Inc. for $1.65 billion. MetraHealth is a privately held company that was formed by combining the group health care operations of The Travelers Insurance Company and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
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| 1996 |
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The company's patented artificial intelligence system AdjudiPro®, which is entered into the permanent research collection of the Smithsonian Institution, is awarded the CIO Enterprise Value Award.
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| 1998 |
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United HealthCare Corporation becomes known as UnitedHealth Group and launches a strategic realignment into independent but strategically linked business segments UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, Uniprise, Specialized Care Services and Ingenix.
The first release of Clinical Profiles(sm) takes place. Clinical Profiles, produced by Ingenix, provides network physicians with data comparing their clinical practices to nationally accepted benchmarks for care.
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| 1999 |
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UnitedHealthcare introduces Care Coordination(sm), which eliminates prior authorizations and channels those resources into consumer and physician outreach for people who will benefit most from coordinating fragmented care delivery resources.
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| 2000 |
| UnitedHealthcare
launches myuhc.com®, which enables individual customers to order
ID cards, check the status of claims, and access relevant health
information online. |
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| 2001 |
| UnitedHealthcare
uses Web-enabled technology to simplify and improve service
for physicians, enabling them to check benefit eligibility for
patients and submit and review claims. The company also launches
a Web-based distribution portal to serve small business brokers.
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| 2002 |
| Ingenix continues to introduce new knowledge and information products - including Parallax i, iCES™ and the Galaxy clinical database - that help clients gain clinical and financial insights and improve the quality of health care delivery and administration. |
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| 2003 |
| Uniprise introduces electronic medical ID cards that use magnetic stripe technology and the MasterCard® system and network to make it easy to verify patient eligibility and benefits in seconds. |
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| 2004 |
| UnitedHealth Group launches iPlan® HSA, a product that integrates a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account, for employer groups. The product is offered through the company's UnitedHealthcare and Uniprise businesses. Golden Rule, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, offers HSAs to individuals. |
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| 2005 |
| Ingenix is selected by the FDA for drug safety monitoring and support. The Ingenix program includes extensive data resources and analytic capabilities to help the FDA accelerate the identification and assessment of issues and potential risks related to pharmaceutical agents.
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| 2006 |
| UnitedHealth
Group announces enhanced card technology that will combine
health benefit information and financial information on a single
card. In addition to multiple accounts, the new cards will also
provide access to an individual’s Personal Health Record, making
critical health information highly portable. |
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| 2007 |
| UnitedHealth Group extends and
broadens its relationship with AARP for an additional seven
years to include Medicare Advantage, Part D and Medicare
Supplement products across all markets. |