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UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group – An American-based Managed Healthcare and Insurance Company.

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The American multinational company UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is based in Minnesota, United States. It is founded in 1977 by Richard T. Burke is a for-profit healthcare company. UnitedHealth Group mainly provides healthcare products and insurance services to people in the US and beyond. The company has accomplished massive success within the last four decades and has become the second-largest healthcare company in the entire world. UnitedHealth is also the eighth largest company across all sectors in the world in terms of revenue. The current market capitalization of UnitedHealth Group is more than $400 billion. The company is currently under the leadership of Andrew Witty.

About the Company

UnitedHealth Group is a Fortune Global 500 company and is ranked 8th on the list this year. The company is also a part of both S&P 100 and S&P 500 components. UnitedHealth Group’s main goal is to give everyone a healthier life and make the working of the health system better for everyone. The company is striving to improve affordability and enhance the healthcare experience for every citizen which will build an overall healthier community. During the crisis of COVID-19, the company has funded more than 2,500 oxygen concentrators in India and supported the vulnerable population in the US and across the world. Recently, the company has been selected by the State of Nevada to serve its medical beneficiaries.

UnitedHealth Group
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History of UnitedHealth Group

In 1974, a private company called Charter Med Incorporated was founded by Richard Taylor Burke. After three years, in order to restructure and reorganize the company, another business was established, United Healthcare Corporation. And, the former company became a subsidiary of this bigger company. The company was established to play the role of a health management organization and its first goal was to manage the physician’s health plan of Minnesota.

Eventually, the company started opening a new business which includes launching its first pharmacy benefit management in 1988. This new solution was rolled out through one of its subsidiaries called Diversified Pharmaceutical Services. Later, this subsidiary was acquired by SmithKline Beecham for $2.3 billion.

Acquisition and Expansion

The company started making a significant number of acquisitions in the 1990s. In 1994, it acquired a company called Ramsey-HMO followed by The MetraHealth Companies Inc in 1995. An acquisition in 1996 helped the company expand to Arkansas, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee through the operated HMOs of the acquired business. The United Healthcare Corporation was rebranded as UnitedHealth Group as the company was reorganized as holding many independent companies. Some of the companies are Ovations, Uniprise, UnitedHealthcare, etc. The same year, the company also acquired HealthPartners of Arizona.

In the early 2000s, a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group merged with LifeMark Health Plans. In 2002, the company acquired two brands, GeoAccess and AmeriChoice respectively. The next year, UnitedHealth Group expanded its business to West Virginia, Delaware, Washington D.C., and Maryland as it acquired Mid Atlantic Medical Services. The company also acquired Golden Rule Financial, Touchpoint Health Plan, Oxford Health Plans, PacifiCare Health Systems in due course of time. A lot of other companies were acquired by UnitedHealth Group but particularly the Optum unit of the company made some significant acquisitions and helped the company to expand further.

The Optum unit of UnitedHealth Group acquired companies like Rally Health in 2017 followed by Davita Medical Group in 2019 for $4.3 billion. The brand Optum was created by UnitedHealth Group in 2011 as the company’s health services business and currently it is the technology focussed brand of the parent company. In 2019, Andrew Witty who played his role as the CEO of the company’s Optum division became the President of the UnitedHealth Group.

About the Founder

Richard T Burke is a famous businessman who is currently on the board of the UnitedHealth Group. Apart from playing his role as the CEO of UnitedHealth, he was also the CEO of Arizona Coyotes for some time. He currently owns 7,000 units of UnitedHealth Inc stocks and his net worth is approximately $907 million as of July 2021. Richard is an alumnus of Georgia State University.

Teladoc Health

Teladoc Health – An Online Healthcare Company Providing On-Demand Medical Supervision Since 2002

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Established in 2002, Teladoc Health is a US-based company providing remote healthcare, medical supervision, telehealth devices, etc. The company has a very broad customer base as it serves more than 130 countries. A virtual healthcare platform like Teladoc Health comes very handy during times of emergency situations. The founders of Teladoc Health are Bryon Brooks and Michael Gorton. Currently, the company has more than 2,000 employees providing healthcare services to around 27 million people around the world.

The idea of Teladoc Health is very unique and it is the first and the largest virtual healthcare company in the US. With time, Teladoc has expanded and rolled out a variety of new products including AI and analytics. The primary way of providing medical supervision to its users is done via telephone, video conferencing app, and also using mobile apps. The importance of online healthcare service will always be on-demand but in situations like a global pandemic, its usability is increased by several folds.

Establishment of Teladoc Healthcare

Bryon and Michael founded the company, Teladoc Health in Dallas, Texas in 2002. The idea of developing an online platform for medical consultancy was first brought to the US by these two people. When the company was founded, the business model was such that it allowed patients to consult state-licensed doctors through the Teladoc platform. While the patients or the users needed to pay a sum of $35 or $40 for every consultation, the company paid a monthly amount for their employees so that they can also have access to the services of Teladoc Health.

Teladoc Health
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With this business model, Teladoc decided to move forward and launched the company nationally in 2005 during the Consumer Directed Healthcare Conference in Chicago. At this time, Michael Gorton was both the Chairman and CEO of the company. After it was launched nationally, many big companies started providing Teladoc services to their employees as a part of their healthcare benefits. By the end of 2007, Teladoc hit 1 million users.

Growth and Expansion

Soon Michael Gorton was replaced by Jason Gorevic and the funding rounds of the company began. In December 2009, Teladoc conducted its initial private funding rounds and raised $9 million. After a couple of years, it raised another $22.6 million. In 2011, Teladoc and Aetna embarked on a joint venture as Aetna started offering Teladoc exclusively to its insured members from Florida and Texas. In 2013, Teladoc acquired a company called Consult a Doctor for $16.6 million to bring more versatility to its platform and give small companies access to the service of Teladoc. By the end of 2013, Teladoc’s total funding money summed up to $46.6 million.

After the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, many companies signed with Teladoc. The company witnessed a great increase in the number of users during 2013 and 2014. Many famous companies like Blue Shield, Oscar, Home Depot, T-Mobile, etc signed in with Teladoc. In 2014, Teldoc acquired AmeriDoc which was one of the biggest competitors of the company during that time. Another private funding round was conducted in 2014 where the company raised $50 million.

The company again made two big acquisitions in 2015, namely Better Help and Stat Health Services. Teladoc became a public company on 1st July 2015 and it was the only telemedicine company in the NYSE. Teladoc acquired the highest number of companies in 2015 and 2016 which includes Compile Inc, HealthiestYou, etc. Teladoc also started to expand its expertise in new fields such as dermatology, sexual health, and behavioral health.

Current Day Teladoc

In 2017, Teladoc made the biggest acquisition in its history as it bought a medical consultation firm called Best Doctors. In 2018, the company changed its name from Teladoc Inc to Teladoc Health. For the next couple of years, Teladoc also focused on acquiring international companies to strengthen its market in other nations. Last year, Teladoc made another big acquisition as it purchased Livongo Health for $18.5 billion.

Teladoc has always intended to stay clear of any major competitors by eventually acquiring them and thus it today has a huge number of services for every kind of patient. In Teladoc Health, there’s a huge diversity in types of medical consultation and virtual care.  The company is currently thriving in the healthcare sector under the leadership of Jason Gorevic. He continues to be the CEO of the company since 2009.