CONCORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UnitedHealthcare is expanding its “SignatureValue Alliance” health plan to Northern California, giving local business owners a new health plan option featuring high-performance care provider networks committed to delivering effective, evidence-based and cost-efficient care.
The SignatureValue Alliance plan is available to Northern California businesses with 51 or more employees. The plan enables employers and employees to save on their health care costs through lower premiums while still having access to a wide range of traditional and deductible HMO plans.
The Alliance care provider network includes four large physician groups in Northern California that include 27 hospitals and nearly 12,600 physicians and specialists. Participating Alliance physician groups are: Sutter Health, including the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, Sutter Medical Foundation, and Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation; Brown & Toland Physicians; Affinity Medical Group; and DCHS Medical Foundation. Together, the Alliance network provides its plan customers a broad selection of quality facilities, physicians and specialists across Northern California.
The participating medical groups were included based on technological sophistication, clinical performance and quality measures, and an ability to deliver health care cost savings. High-performance networks, which include physicians rated both on quality and efficiency measures, are becoming increasingly popular as a way to improve outcomes and more effectively manage costs.
“UnitedHealthcare’s SignatureValue Alliance offers the quality and value employers are looking for when choosing their health coverage because it combines the affordability of an HMO with access to high-quality health care professionals,” said Brandon Cuevas, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of California. “Plan participants enjoy comprehensive health benefits coverage and access to a wide, local care provider network of quality doctors and hospitals.”
“Sutter Health and UnitedHealthcare share the commitment to provide consumers across Northern California with access to high-quality, affordable care,” said Peter Anderson, senior vice president, Strategy and Business Development at Sutter Health. “The SignatureValue Alliance plan helps to deliver on that goal.”
UnitedHealthcare’s SignatureValue Alliance was launched in Southern California and Fresno County earlier this year. Now, the new health plan is available in 15 additional Northern California and North San Joaquin Valley counties, including: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus and Yolo.
“UnitedHealthcare’s SignatureValue Alliance provides California employers with a new health plan option that is helping provide high-quality, cost-effective care,” said John Connell, president of Leavitt Group, a health benefits broker. “This type of high-performance care provider network is both innovative and an important step in helping California employers continue to offer quality, affordable health benefits to their employees.”
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare
is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by
simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and
wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care
providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit
programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid
beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 650,000 physicians
and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals nationwide. UnitedHealthcare
serves more than 38 million people and is one of the businesses of
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and
well-being company.