HealthPass Now Offering UnitedHealthcare's Oxford Health Benefit Plans to New York-Area Small Businesses

NEW YORK, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- A new relationship between UnitedHealthcare and HealthPass gives New York-area small businesses more health benefit plan options.  

HealthPass, a partnership between the New York Business Group on Health, New York City and the health insurance industry, is offering five of UnitedHealthcare's Oxford health insurance plans to employers with two to 50 eligible employees.  Eligible employers must be based in New York City or the surrounding area, including Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties.  

Small businesses and their employees can enroll immediately for coverage for April 1st effective dates and later.  The health plan choices provide variety in plan design, including in-network and out-of-network options, as well as the option of requiring a referral for specialist visits.  Routine preventive care and laboratory services will be covered in-network at no charge.  

"Finding affordable, high-quality health insurance remains a big challenge for thousands of small employers in the metropolitan New York area," said Vince Ashton, executive director of HealthPass, "Our partnership with UnitedHealthcare demonstrates our shared commitment to helping small businesses find alternative ways to secure affordable health insurance.  We are very pleased to offer Oxford health insurance plans."

"We continue to be impressed with HealthPass and its dedication to helping the uninsured and underinsured find affordable health coverage," said Bill Golden, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of New York.  "We understand the health insurance challenges that small businesses face and look forward to working with HealthPass to increase the number of small business owners who are able to offer health benefits to their employees."

"The addition of Oxford products to the roster of options available through HealthPass is great news for small employers searching for cost-effective ways to offer health insurance to their workers," said Laurel Pickering, executive director of the New York Business Group on Health.

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, currently serves more than 2.3 million New Yorkers and provides a health care network that includes more than 48,000 physicians and 200 hospitals.  

For more information about the Oxford health insurance plans offered through HealthPass, visit www.healthpass.com.

About HealthPass

An innovative partnership between the New York Business Group on Health, the City of New York and the health insurance industry, HealthPass provides small businesses with an array of Fortune 500-quality healthcare options through an insurance exchange.

HealthPass enables eligible employees of small businesses to individually choose a healthcare plan that fits their medical needs and budgets. There are more than 25 different coverage options from New York's leading carriers – EmblemHealth, GHI, HIP Health Plan of New York and Oxford – as well as two dental plans and a bundled product offered through Guardian.  With more than 200,000 providers, HealthPass affords greater network access than any single plan.  For more information, please visit www.healthpass.com

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefits plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies.  The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of approximately 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 600,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.

SOURCE HealthPass