The insurance arm of a giant nonprofit group has decided to work with 2 carriers to provide health coverage programs for its members.
AARP Services Inc., a subsidiary of AARP, Washington, an organization that represents 38 million U.S. residents age 50 and over, says it will renew and expand its health insurance alliance with a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.
The alliance has helped make UnitedHealth a giant in the Medicare supplement insurance market since 1997, when it won a 10-year contract to replace a managed care unit of the company that became Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., as the manager of the AARP Medigap operation.
UnitedHealth later began offering supplemental health insurance products and other products to some AARP members who were not old enough to qualify for Medicare.
AARP now has awarded a unit of UnitedHealth a new, 7-year contract that calls for UnitedHealth to continue to provide Medicare supplement insurance and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans for AARP members age 65 as well as to continue to provide indemnity insurance products for some of the 18 million AARP members who are under age 65.
UnitedHealth also will work with AARP to create a new Medicare Advantage program, AARP says.
The new, AARP-branded UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage program will guarantee that it will be in the market for at least 2 years, Aetna says.
