UnitedHealth acquires Unison Health Plan

Unison Health Plan, which is one of the health plans serving Ohio's Medicaid population, is being acquired by the AmeriChoice division of UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (Source: "UnitedHealth's AmeriChoice closes Unison deal," Columbus Business First, June 2, 2008).  Unison provides coverage to 82,700 members and has 30 staff in its Columbus offices.

Unison serves as an Ohio Medicaid managed health care plan in three regions for both the CFC and the ABD Medicaid Managed Care Programs:  East Central; Northeast Central, and Southeast.  The counties in the East Central region are Ashland, Carroll, Holmes, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscawaras, and Wayne.  The counties in the Northeast Central are Columbiana, Mahoning, and Trumbull.  The counties in the Southeast region area Athens, Belmont, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Vinton, Washington.

This deal will allow UnitedHealth to enter into the public sector health plan business in Ohio.  UnitedHealth had previously been a managed care plan provider in Ohio in the 1990s.