United Healthcare, also spelled UnitedHealthcare, can trace its roots back to 1974 when Richard Taylor Burke founded Charter Med Incorporated, a Minnetonka, Minnesota-based privately held company. In 1977, the United HealthCare Corporation was created to reorganize the company and became the parent company of Charter Med. United HealthCare’s charter was to manage the newly created Physicians Health Plan of Minnesota, an early health management organization.
Today the company offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world’s eighth-largest company in terms of revenue and second-largest healthcare company behind CVS Health by revenue, and the largest insurance company by net premiums. UnitedHealthcare revenues comprise 80% of the Group’s overall revenue.
The company continues to expand, often by acquisition.
In 2017, UnitedHealthcare acquired Rally Health and in 2019, it acquired DaVita Medical Group.
In 2016, UnitedHealthcare announced that it was pulling out of the Obamacare health plan in all but three states.
The company has faced numerous fines and lawsuits including in 2017, CMS fined UnitedHealthcare after discovering issues in Medicare Part D leading to delays or denials in a 2016 audit, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance fined UnitedHealthcare $2.5 million due to various compliance issues; this was the largest fine against a licensee in nine years and in Pennslyvania, UnitedHealthcare assessed $1 million penalty for claims payment violations.
UnitedHealthcare maintains a corporate office in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
