The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC Physicians and UnitedHealthcare Sign New Multi-Year Agreement

The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC Physicians and UnitedHealthcare, and its affiliate, United Resource Networks, have signed new multi-year agreements. The new agreements, effective Dec. 1, 2007, and Jan. 1, 2008 (The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC Physicians, respectively), enable UnitedHealthcare commercial, Medicare and Medicaid health plan participants uninterrupted access to affordable, quality health care. "The agreements with The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC Physicians demonstrate UnitedHealthcare’s commitment to provide access to quality, affordable health care for our customers,” said Bill Tracy, president and CEO of UnitedHealthcare of the Heartland States. "We are pleased that, with these long-term agreements, we can continue to provide our members with predictable and stable access to the most comprehensive physician network in the Omaha, Neb., metropolitan area.” UnitedHealthcare members have access to an extensive network of 98 hospitals and more than 4,000 physicians throughout Nebraska. "We look forward to continuing our collaboration with UnitedHealthcare and bringing our extraordinary care to more members of our community,” said Steve Smith, M.D., chief medical officer at The Nebraska Medical Center. "The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC Physicians understand that our nationally recognized team of physicians and health care providers offer services unavailable elsewhere. We are pleased that our new agreements with UnitedHealthcare will enable our patients to preserve their access to these outstanding leaders in medicine.” Any patients who have additional questions can call The Nebraska Medical Center toll-free hotline at 1-888-662-8662 or go to www.nebraskamed.com. About The Nebraska Medical Center With a reputation for excellence, innovation and extraordinary patient care, The Nebraska Medical Center has earned J.D. Power and Associates’ Hospital of Distinction award for two consecutive years. It also received the 2007 Consumer Choice Award, a mark of patient satisfaction as selected by healthcare consumers and has achieved Magnet recognition status for nursing excellence, Thomson 100 Top Hospitals Performance Improvement Leader recognition, as well as the Award of Progress from the state of Nebraska’s Edgerton Quality Awards Program. As the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, this 689 licensed bed academic medical center has an international reputation for providing solid organ and bone marrow transplantation services and is well known nationally and regionally for its oncology, neurology and cardiology programs. The Nebraska Medical Center can be found online at www.nebraskamed.com. About UNMC Physicians UNMC Physicians is the physician group practice of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Five-hundred physicians represent 50 specialties and sub-specialty areas ranging from primary care to oncology, transplantation and cardiology. With a history dating back to 1952, UNMC Physicians is committed to leadership and excellence in patient care, research and education. UNMC Physicians can be found online at www.UNMCphysicians.com. About UnitedHealthcare 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 535,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,700 hospitals nationwide to offer consumers 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.