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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is a diversified managed health care company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S. It is No. 22 on Fortune magazines top 500 companies in the United States. UnitedHealth Group offers a spectrum of products and services through two operating businesses: United Healthcare and Optum. Through its family of subsidiaries and divisions, UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 70 million individuals nationwide. In 2011, the company posted a net earnings of $5.142 billion.

UnitedHealth Group is the parent of UnitedHealthcare, the largest single health carrier in the United States. It was created in 1977, as United HealthCare Corporation (it was renamed in 1998), but traces its origin to a firm it acquired in 1977, Charter Med Incorporated, which was founded in 1974. In 1979, it introduced the first network-based health plan for seniors. In 1984, it became a publicly traded company.

J.D. Power and Associates recently gave UnitedHealthcare the highest employer satisfaction rating for self-insured health plans. UnitedHealthcare also received high marks from the American Medical Association (AMA) in its 2011 National Health Insurance Report Card. The fourth annual report card evaluated seven national health insurance companies on the timeliness and accuracy of their claims processing based on a variety of payment, approval and process metrics. UnitedHealthcare moved into the top spot among its industry peers on two metrics: Contracted Fee Schedule Match Rate, which indicates how often an insurer's claim payment matches the contracted fee schedule; and Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Accuracy, which measures the rate at which the insurer's allowed amount equals the physician practice's expected allowed amount. And in a recent insurance industry publication, Business Insurance, United was named "readers choice" winner 2010 for "Best health plan provider". By contrast, however, in a 2010 survey of hospital executives who have dealt with the company, United received a 65% unfavorable rating. While this marks a 33% improvement over the prior year's survey, UnitedHealthcare still ranked last among all listed.