UnitedHealthcare customers have access to online services to manage health-related finances

UnitedHealthcare customers now have access to new and enhanced online services that help them better manage their health-related finances and anticipate potential medical costs.

“Quicken Health Expense Tracker and Treatment Cost Estimator give our customers easier access to health care information that is tailored to their specific health coverage. Our goal is to empower consumers to make more educated health care decisions that help them and their families improve their health and well-being.”

Quicken Health Expense Tracker's^SM new 'bill pay' feature lets health plan participants pay their medical expenses online via credit or debit card, or qualified health care account. Also, UnitedHealthcare expanded its Treatment Cost Estimator to include physician-specific pricing on numerous medical procedures. Both are available now on UnitedHealthcare's customer portal, www.myuhc.com

Quicken Health Expense Tracker, developed by Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) and UnitedHealth Group's Ingenix subsidiary, helps consumers understand their medical expenses at a glance. It draws on 18 months' worth of claims and benefits data to automatically assemble a complete financial picture of the individual's medical-related savings and expenses in one convenient location, and is continually updated with current claims information to inform users how much they owe for their most recent doctor's visit.

Quicken Health Expense Tracker also helps consumers understand the total cost of health care services they use by keeping track of deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, and showing detailed calculations behind the amount billed, how much the health plan covered and what is owed for each medical bill. Just in time for tax season, it also tracks medical expenses for tax reporting and helps determine proper funding levels for pretax savings vehicles such as flexible spending accounts or health savings accounts.

"Keeping track of and understanding medical bills can seem like a daunting task, but Quicken Health Expense Tracker's full-picture view makes it easy," said Spencer H. Stooksbury, corporate director of benefits for American Financial Group, whose employees are using the Quicken tool from UnitedHealthcare. "Written in language a non-medical person understands, Quicken Health Expense Tracker provides a better understanding of an individual's care and medical benefits, making this a great online resource to help all of us become better health care consumers."

While Quicken Health Expense Tracker collects and organizes billing information from previous visits to the doctor, the cost of future trips to a physician can be better anticipated with the enhanced Treatment Cost Estimator. Covering 116 diseases, 90 surgeries and procedures, and more than 500 individual services, the Treatment Cost Estimator now provides cost estimates for thousands of physicians across more than 400 different markets. The enhanced online resource also incorporates UnitedHealthcare customers' specific health plan information to estimate what portion of those costs the patient would be responsible for paying and remind them of any available funds in their health care account that may be used to pay for the expenses.

Ultimately, the Treatment Cost Estimator provides a more complete view of how a treatment cost differs from doctor to doctor, giving UnitedHealthcare plan participants the power to comparison shop for health services.

"At UnitedHealthcare, we believe innovation and transparency of information are key to making health care more efficient and effective," said Mike Matteo, CEO of UnitedHealthcare's national accounts business. "Quicken Health Expense Tracker and Treatment Cost Estimator give our customers easier access to health care information that is tailored to their specific health coverage. Our goal is to empower consumers to make more educated health care decisions that help them and their families improve their health and well-being."

A national health care survey conducted last year by Intuit found that 70 percent of Americans are concerned about managing their health care bills.

"Now more than ever, people are being asked to take on more financial responsibility for their own health care, and they need the tools to help them understand what is happening so they can make good decisions," said Peter Karpas, president and division general manager of Intuit's Quicken Health Group. "Quicken Health Expense Tracker was designed to help people manage their medical bills; the addition of bill pay furthers that goal of making consumers' lives easier."

Quicken Health Expense Tracker and the Treatment Cost Estimator are available at no additional cost to nearly 18 million UnitedHealthcare commercial plan participants, including more than 3 million individuals who are enrolled in UnitedHealthcare's consumer-driven health plans. Since Quicken Health Expense Tracker was made available to UnitedHealthcare customers in December, an average of more than 10,000 plan participants have signed up each month.