UnitedHealthcare Collaborates With YOU: The Smart Patient Author Dr. Mehmet Oz to Help Consumers Improve Their Health and Find the Right Doctor

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, announced an exclusive collaboration with health care expert Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The relationship enhances UnitedHealthcare's efforts to increase consumer awareness and build greater independence in making health care decisions by delivering information that empowers them to become smarter health care consumers.

Dr. Oz is a leading heart surgeon and researcher at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the university hospital of Columbia and Cornell, author of several New York Times Bestsellers and featured expert on the Oprah and Friends XM satellite radio show.

The collaboration provides UnitedHealthcare members with discounts on Dr. Oz's newly released book, YOU: on a Diet, and his recent New York Times Bestseller, YOU: The Smart Patient. Members may purchase either book at a discount off the cover price through UnitedHealthcare's Web site, http://www.unitedhealthcare.com/, via a link to http://www.amazon.com/. Members can save an additional 10 percent off the already-reduced amazon.com price for a total of 40 percent off retail. In addition, UnitedHealthcare is mailing an excerpt from YOU: The Smart Patient -- titled "Finding Dr. Right" -- to nearly 2 million health plan members.

"There is an increasing demand by consumers for meaningful data to support their care decisions. We are committed to providing easy access to user-friendly tools that can help them navigate the health care system and become smarter patients," said Dr. Lewis Sandy, UnitedHealthcare's executive vice president for Clinical Strategies and Policy. "Our collaboration with Dr. Oz enables us to offer educational resources to consumers and highlights a strong partnership with a renowned health care advocate who people recognize, trust and respect."

UnitedHealthcare is expanding the UnitedHealth Premium physician designation program to provide more consumers with access to comparative data on physician quality and cost. Using evidence-based physician and consensus standards combined with robust datasets to assess physician performance and inform consumer choice, the program helps consumers select doctors who meet their specific medical needs. Unlike other programs, the UnitedHealth Premium program is available to all consumers, regardless of their health plan affiliation. Members and non-members can access the program at http://www.myuhc.com/.

Dr. Oz heralds access to data on provider quality as a key step in empowering smart patients.

"Although the Internet offers significant information about illnesses and treatments, the lack of objective insight about specific doctors remains an issue," he said. "The Premium program not only provides consumers with easy access to data in one place, but it also goes further by recognizing physicians and hospitals whose practices are consistent with widely published evidence- and consensus-based standards to ultimately help them select the right doctor."

The UnitedHealth Premium program assesses physicians practicing in 21 specialties and subspecialties, including primary care providers. Physicians who receive the quality of care designation are recognized with one star in UnitedHealthcare's online directory, while two stars indicate physicians who have received designations for both quality and efficiency of care.

Dr. Sandy added: "Choosing the right doctor is one of the most important things you can do for your health. The UnitedHealth Premium program makes it easy and intuitive for all people -- members or not -- to see how physicians perform against evidence-based and consensus standards of care. Our program analyzes the trillions of claims we process and compares each physician's practice patterns with the quality guidelines."

About Dr. Oz

Dr. Mehmet Oz is the professor and vice chairman of surgery at Columbia University in New York City, director of the Cardiovascular Institute and founder and director for the Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Oz is a widely published author, including the award-winning Healing from the Heart and two best-selling books, YOU: The Owner's Manual and YOU: The Smart Patient. He has written numerous articles for consumer and medical publications, including Reader's Digest, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The New England Journal of Medicine, and has a bi-monthly column in Esquire magazine. He hosts the Dr. Oz Show on the Oprah and Friends XM satellite channel.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare (http://www.unitedhealthcare.com/) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefits plans and services, helping more than 25 million individual consumers nationwide achieve improved health and well-being through various health service systems. UnitedHealthcare arranges access to quality, affordable care with more than 500,000 physicians and care professional and 4,600 hospitals across America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group , a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.