Oxford Health Plans is an American health care company that sells various benefit plans, primarily in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. As of 2004, it is a subsidiary of

UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world's seventh largest c ...

, the largest healthcare company in the world, claiming to be "among the first" to allow patients to see specialists without a referral and to offer

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

treatments.

Overview

The dark blue membership cards carried by members belonging to its family of ''Oxford Health Plans'' included various subtitles, such as ''Freedom Plan'' and ''Liberty Plan''; the card's color changed to white. ''The Wall Street Journal'' described their HMO as "trend-setting" and noted that Oxford "even let patients visit specialists outside its own network."

History

The company was founded in 1984 by Stephen Wiggins targeting "upscale" doctors and consumers. It claimed major growth in the 1990s increasing from 217,000 members to nearly two million. However, by mid 1998, the company had replaced its founder/

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, and his successor, William Sullivan. The ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' described the company's services as "Ill-Managed Care", and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'''s ''Deliver, Then Depart'' had criticized is practice of limiting payments for new mothers to ''drive-by deliveries.'' The firm was fined $3 million for a variety of legal violations amidst false claims of alleged profits that included double counting of premiums. In 2004 it merged with the 1985-founded UnitedHealth Group.

References

External links

* American companies established in 1984 Health insurance companies of the United States Health care companies established in 1984 2004 mergers and acquisitions {{US-company-stub