To reward its best partners for their continued partnerships, UnitedHealthcare began its United Advantage program. Through this program, UnitedHealthcare was able to differentiate itself from others in the marketplace as well as help partners better understand and represent its values.
“What we see is that once a broker qualifies for this, they’re able to better represent our value in the marketplace with prospects and business owners, so they are able to stay within the program,” said Vice President of Sales Michael Telesky. “Typically, once an agency is in, they see the value of the resources. They understand the value we can bring to members and to companies in the marketplace, so they remain in the program.”
The benefits partners get from this program depends on whether they are at the gold, platinum, or diamond level, with diamond providing the most benefits. The four key benefit areas are retention benefits, selling benefits, virtual training and education, and support and marketing benefits. The United Advantage program also offers individual solutions and tools within any of these four key benefit areas. A benchmarking tool can also provide access to medical and dental plan data, which partners can compare to offerings on a national scale.
Retention benefits can include features such as a dedicated client service manager and underwriting access; selling benefits can include features such as a broker locator and local advisory council; virtual training and education can include self-funded underwriting and an introduction to self-funded concepts; and support and marketing benefits can include advertising packages and marketing investment support.
In Northwest Indiana, current partners include Meyers Glaros Group, 1st Source Insurance, MacLennan & Bain Insurance, and General Insurance Services. Meyers Glaros Group and 1st Source Insurance are longstanding partners within the program while MacLennan & Bain Insurance is relatively new based on recent growth, and General Insurance Services just qualified for the program this year.
Telesky is happy to have these four partners in Northwest Indiana and looks forward to expanding this offering to more businesses as the qualify.
“I really love working with them because of the amount of business and volume of business that they have written with UnitedHealthcare. They truly do understand our full breadth of capabilities, and that allows them to be consultative to bring unique solutions to each of their clients and prospects,” he said. “Ultimately, that ends up saving the group money and saves members out of pocket cost and money. It can improve the plans that they’re being offered as well. What I really like is that they truly understand our full breadth of capability because they have such a strong partnership with us.”
To learn more about UnitedHealthcare and its offerings, visit https://www.uhc.com/. To learn more about the UnitedHealthcare’s United Advantage program https://unitedadvantage.com/welcome.
