Oxford Health Plans

Oxford Health Plans[1][2] is an American health care company that sells various benefit plans, primarily in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.[3][4]

As of 2004, it is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the largest healthcare company in the world,[5] claiming to be "among the first" to allow patients to see specialists without a referral and to offer alternative medicine treatments.[1][6]

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."[7]

History

The company was founded in 1984[3] by Stephen Wiggins targeting "upscale" doctors and consumers. It claimed major growth in the 1990s increasing from 217,000 members to nearly two million.[1] However, by mid 1998, the company had replaced its founder/CEO,[2] and his successor, William Sullivan.[8][9][10]

At that time, the Wall Street Journal described the company's services as "Ill-Managed Care";[11] earlier, in 1995, Newsweek ' s "Deliver, Then Depart" had criticized its practice of limiting payments for new mothers to "drive-through deliveries".[12] In 1997 the firm had been fined $3 million for a variety of legal violations[13] amidst false claims of alleged profits[14] that included double counting of premiums.[11]

In 2004[15] it merged with UnitedHealth Group.[16][17]

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