THE NATIONAL ROSTER: UNITED HEALTH
Headquarters:
Minnetonka, Minnesota2007 Profits:
$4.654 billion2007 CEO Total Compensation:
Stephen J. Hemsley, $13,164,529
Your health insurance company may belong to UnitedHealth without you even knowing it. Oxford? PacifiCare? IBA? AmeriChoice? Evercare? Ovations? MAMSI? These insurers are all part of the UnitedHealth behemoth, which also owns Ingenix, a health care data company, and other health-care related businesses.
Infamous For:
“Hand in the Cookie Jar”
UnitedHealth hit the headlines in 2006, when the company’s then-CEO, William McGuire, was fingered in a stock options scandal. Though he ultimately returned $620 million, he managed to keep a comfortable $800 million. Forced out of his job, he handed the reins over to Stephen Hemsley, his “trusty chief operating officer” who joined UnitedHealth from Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that closed shop in the wake of the Enron scandal. Turns out Mr. Hemsley was more involved in the stock options scandal then previously thought.
UnitedHealth’s grasping hand is also getting slapped by New York State General, who says he intendeds to sue the company for systematically forcing patients to pay more than they should when using doctors and hospitals outside their insurer’s networks.
Translation:
We’ll use all our resources to make sure you don’t get the benefits you paid for and give our top execs big money for doing it so well.
Read about other insurance companies on the national roster:
Aetna | CIGNA | Coventry | Health Net | Humana | WellPoint
LATEST SCORECARD
Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the U.S. report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of U.S. doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients’ care, according to the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey.
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Families saw their premiums for job-based health insurance rise to an average of $13,375 annually in 2009, with workers paying an average share of $3,515 and employers paying $9,860.
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