A New Name for UICI: HealthMarkets(SM); Company Provides Affordable Insurance, Transparency Tools for Consumers.NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas North Richland Hills is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. The population was 55,635 at the 2000 census. In 2006, North Richland Hills was selected as the one of the "Top 100 Best Places to live in America" according to Money magazine. -- UICI, a leading provider of affordable, innovative health insurance, announced today that it has changed its corporate identity to HealthMarkets. The new name reflects the company's growing role in empowering consumers to make wise health care decisions. HealthMarkets is rolling out cutting-edge technology and plans that allow its members to do what few Americans can do: easily comparison shop for doctors, hospitals and other health care providers on the basis of price and quality. "Our name is new, but our commitment has not changed," HealthMarkets President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. ) William J. Gedwed said. "The people at HealthMarkets have always focused on providing America's best health insurance value." --Gedwed will speak to reporters by telephone at 9:30 a.m. CDT CDT abbr. Central Daylight Time CDT Central Daylight Time CDT n abbr (US) (= Central Daylight Time) → hora de verano del centro; (BRIT , Friday, April 14, 2006. The dial-in number is: (866) 270-6057, code 933-966-96. Following his remarks, HealthMarkets is offering a brief "virtual tour" of the leading price and quality transparency tools in the industry. News media members are encouraged to log in at least 10 minutes early to http://healthmarket.webex.com and click on "HealthMarkets Web Demo." Since the Dallas-Fort Worth area-company was founded in 1985, the firm has focused on providing value to those typically underserved by larger insurance companies: self-employed individuals, their families, hourly workers, students, small business owners and small business employees. In all, the company serves 1.2 million members. At a time when health care price and quality transparency was a rarity, UICI in 2004 purchased the assets and technology of an innovative star in the field, Connecticut-based HealthMarket. Now UICI's superb sales and distribution channels, and its superior service, are matched with the nation's most innovative products in health insurance today. The result is HealthMarkets. HealthMarkets operates in 44 states. It has introduced proprietary tools in 19 states that reveal out-of-pocket prices consumers will likely pay for services from 437,000 doctors and other medical professionals. Members also get relative rankings on the cost of services at more than 4,600 hospitals and other facilities. Unlike some pilot projects that offer price transparency Price Transparency The accessibility of information on the order flow for a particular stock, allowing knowledge of the quantities of stock being offered and the bids at the various price levels. Also referred to as "market depth. on a few procedures in limited markets, the tools offer price transparency on virtually anything a hospital or doctor does: more than 20,000 health care procedures and services. "Health care in America has failed for the 45 million Americans with no insurance at all," Gedwed said. "If we continue down a business-as-usual path, the number of uninsured Americans will continue to rise, at a high economic and human cost." "We see market and consumer power as the only desirable solution to fixing health care," Gedwed said. "One big reason health care costs go up every year far faster than inflation is that the people who pay the bills have no idea how much things cost. There are no brakes on this system." Americans will be introduced to HealthMarkets as a company that "works for working Americans" in ads that will appear in newspapers including USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. , The Wall Street Journal and The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, national magazines, including People, Money, Inc. and Fortune Small Business, key trade publications, and high-profile websites, including Yahoo, MSN (1) (MicroSoft Network) A family of Internet-based services from Microsoft, which includes a search engine, e-mail (Hotmail), instant messaging (Windows Live Messaging) and a general-purpose portal with news, information and shopping (MSN Directory). , and Google. About HealthMarkets HealthMarkets, headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas, is a provider of health and life insurance products to individuals, families, students, the self-employed and small businesses. HealthMarkets offers products and services through its subsidiaries: The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company. The company's offerings include individual and self employed health insurance, small employer group employer group Association of employers Managed care An entity with a current group benefits agreement in effect with a health plan to provide covered health care services to its employee-subscribers and eligible dependents. health insurance, student health insurance, supplemental health insurance for part-time and hourly workers, life insurance and reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. . Through its Consumer Guided Health Insurance plans, HealthMarkets seeks to provide affordable and accessible health coverage to individuals and small businesses. As of April 5, 2006, the company is owned by of a group of private equity investors, including The Blackstone Group Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) is a prominent private equity and investment management firm founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman. The company is based in New York City, in River House on Park Avenue at Fifty-first Street, with offices in Atlanta, , Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. Capital Partners and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (DLJMB) is a LBO-focused private equity firm of Credit Suisse. DLJMB has offices in New York, London and Los Angeles. External links
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