We thought Medicaid dentists might like to know something about UnitedHealthcare, the company that is going to be awarded the third DMO contract for Texas Medicaid, based on the recent announcement by Texas Health and Human Services.
We had hoped to have the company supply us with information about themselves and their CHIP dental program. To that end, TDMR reached out to company representatives last week who told us they would send us something but, sorry to say, nothing has arrived. Not a great start but if we end up getting anything from them, we’ll update this story.
This is what we found in lieu.
World’s largest healthcare company
According to Wikipedia:
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American for-profit managed health care company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. It is the largest healthcare company in the world by revenue, with 2018 revenue of $226.2 billion and 115 million customers. The company is ranked 6th on the 2019 Fortune 500.
Involved in Medicaid/Medicare in 30 states
Obviously, UHC is in the private market but UnitedHealthcare Community & State is “dedicated to serving state programs that care for the economically disadvantaged, the medically underserved and people without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage, in exchange for a monthly premium per member from the state program” according to its 2018 SEC 10K filing.
As of December 31, 2018, UnitedHealthcare Community & State participated in programs in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and served 6.5 million people; including 1 million people through Medicaid expansion programs in 15 states under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Programs in Texas
UnitedHealthcare Community provides Medicaid and Medicare programs in Texas. We could find out that they have been doing this at least since 2011 and probably before as Texas got into managed care back in 1993.
Texas HHS rates managed care companies for Texans with report cards. We only looked at the CHIP report cards and found one, Harris County, which included United. This is below and it might be an indicator of what dentists can expect from the company.
Controversy
Media headlines show the company is not without controversy.
October 16 – UnitedHealthcare plan faces Medicare sanction
October 10 – United Healthcare terminates contract with Houston Methodist; 100,000 plan members affected
October 7 – UnitedHealthcare issues layoffs in Minnesota
September 27 – Woman gets 500 mysterious letters in 5 days from United Healthcare
March 29 – UnitedHealthcare is pulling out of Iowa’s private Medicaid management program
December 4, 2018 – UnitedHealthcare Customers Are Unhappy About Cuts To SilverSneakers Fitness Program
Report card for Harris County