The marketplace is sending clear messages that it wants health insurers to place increasing emphasis on providing access to affordable, quality health care services, and it wants the hassle factor involved in working with insurers greatly reduced. UnitedHealthcare in the coming year will intensify its efforts to meet and exceed those market expectations, focusing on the introduction of more new products and services; on better, simpler, higher quality and lower cost business processes; and on more useable technologies than ever before.

For physicians, hospitals and other providers of health care services, what that means is the opportunity to gain greater value out of their relationship with UnitedHealthcare increasing use of real-time electronic submission of claims as a means of faster claims turn around. We anticipate that physicians, hospitals and others will see an increased emphasis on customer service that is faster in responding, with a renewed emphasis on accuracy.

Just as UnitedHealthcare is intensely focused on improving its own efficiency in serving the needs of its many customers (providers of health care services, employers, brokers and individual customers), so too are we committed to identifying and recognizing high quality, efficient health care delivery. In 2004, we introduced UnitedHealth Premium Cardiac Specialty Centers, of which there are six such centers in the S. Florida area. The UnitedHealth Premium Cardiac Specialty Centers program identifies hospitals nationwide that are leaders in cardiac care. Select hospitals in the UnitedHealthcare network are invited to apply for designation. In 2005, the UnitedHealth Premium concept will be expanded to musculoskeletal and oncology services.

Because of concern about the variability of health care practice across the nation and even within communities, UnitedHealthcare has a deep commitment to the concept of evidence-based medicine. The health care community in S. Fla. and nationwide already has seen or heard about that commitment, but in the coming year the emphasis on evidence-based medicine will intensify. Just within the last couple of weeks, UnitedHealthcare announced a partnership with the American College of Radiology to advance evidence-based criteria that will support the delivery of higher quality, safe, appropriate and cost-effective diagnostic imaging services.

The health care community in 2005 increasingly will come into contact with patients covered by high deductible health plans, including those with health savings accounts (HSAs), as employers continue looking for affordable health insurance coverage for their employees. While HSAs sales are still in their earliest stage, both large and small employers are signaling their strong interest. In turn, such plans are engaging patients to a much greater degree in health care decision making. UnitedHeathcare is committed to providing its customers with resources they need to be fully engaged in that process. The customer internet site myuhc.com provides information on hospital comparisons, costs comparisons, information on best practices, etc.

The commitment to sharing information on best practices and evidence-based medicine also extends to physicians and others in our health care network. The UnitedHealth Foundation twice each year sends all physicians in the nation a copy of Clinical Evidence, which is produced by the British Medical Journal. Through its Physician Data Sharing program, UnitedHealthcare is able to share useful clinical information, gathered from its vast data resources, with physicians.

The programs and trends mentioned here, as well as many others, are representative of the broad-based efforts that UnitedHealthcare can be expected to focus on in 2005 as it continues its mission of offering customers access to affordable, quality health care services.