HealthPass, UnitedHealthcare Join Forces to Offer Affordable Oxford Health Insurance Products to Sole Proprietors in NYC and Long Island
30 04 08 - 15:08
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In their ongoing effort to cover the working uninsured, HealthPass and UnitedHealthcare, two of New York City's leading providers of health insurance tailored for small business, are joining forces for the first time to offer affordable, high-quality health insurance products to sole proprietors under the Oxford product brand. Oxford is the exclusive small business brand offered by UnitedHealthcare in New York.
HealthPass, a New York City-based non-profit agency dedicated to improving access to health coverage for small businesses, today announced a strategic relationship with UnitedHealthcare to offer a suite of health insurance products under the Oxford brand. These plans, which are the only sole proprietor plans currently available through HealthPass, are designed exclusively for sole proprietors whose businesses are based in the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island. The partnership offers entrepreneurs in these geographic areas access to affordable, high quality health insurance. Sole proprietors who live outside of New York City or Long Island, but whose businesses are based there, will also be eligible to purchase insurance through this agreement.
"Tens of thousands of sole proprietors in the New York City metro area are uninsured because health insurance options in the past have been cost prohibitive or inaccessible," says Vince Ashton, Executive Director, HealthPass. "We are excited to join forces to offer a choice of specially tailored Oxford products which will help the working uninsured find affordable coverage."
"HealthPass has an outstanding reputation for addressing the needs of uninsured workers in the New York metropolitan area small employer market," says Bill Golden, CEO, UnitedHealthcare, New York. "We see this as a great opportunity to improve accessibility of health care services and offer more moderately priced options for the self-employed."
"This is great news for sole proprietors who face tremendous challenges in securing health insurance coverage for themselves and their families," says Laurel Pickering, Executive Director, New York Business Group on Health, parent organization of HealthPass. "As more offerings become available through partnerships like this, the prospect of obtaining health insurance is becoming less daunting and within the means of more entrepreneurs."
Open enrollment in the program begins immediately and coverage will be available starting May 1, 2008. There will be a choice of five plans ranging from traditional EPO options to Consumer Directed Health Plans. Routine preventive care and laboratory services will be covered in-network at no charge and no referrals are necessary for specialist visits. Covered individuals will have access to 75,000 physicians and other providers in the New York tri-state area and over 560,000 UnitedHealthcare Choice Plus network physicians throughout the United States.
For more information, visit www.healthpass.com or www.uhc.com
About HealthPass
HealthPass is an innovative partnership between the New York Business Group on Health, the City of New York and the health insurance industry bringing small businesses, and now sole proprietors, healthcare choices worthy of Fortune 500 companies.
HealthPass allows eligible employees of small businesses to individually choose a healthcare plan that fits their medical needs and budgets from an ever-growing range of choices. There are more than 30 different coverage options from four leading carriers - GHI, Health Net, HIP Health Plan of New York and PerfectHealth – as well as two dental plans and a bundled security product offered through Guardian. With over 200,000 providers, HealthPass affords greater network access than any single plan. For more information, please visit www.healthpass.com
About United Healthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services. The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of more than 26 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 560,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,800 hospitals nationwide to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.