October 19, 2017 Newswires

United Healthcare Opens Store Tailored To Asian-Americans

NJBIZ

America’s largest health insurer, United Healthcare, sees big business opportunities in the ever-growing Asian-American community in New Jersey.

The Minnesota-based health insurance giant has cut the ribbon on its new Asian Resources Center in Bergen County that will offer health education, Medicare services and employer-sponsored coverage specifically tailored to first generation Asian-Americans in the state. While other health major insurance companies such as Aetna and Horizon, all provide bilingual customer service representatives, United Healthcare us the only insurance company to launch such stores in New Jersey.

The insurer also has a store dedicated to serving Asian-Americans in Edison, which became so popular that it decided to open the new one in Bergen.

According to the latest Census data, New Jersey has the third largest population of Asian-Americans in the U.S. with nearly 800,000, next to only California and New York. First generation Asian-Americans, including Koreans, Chinese, Asian Indians and Japanese, are having children at a faster rate than the native New Jersey population, according to the data.

“We are primarily serving first generation Asian-American immigrants facing a lot of barriers — linguistic, cultural and financial,” Chris Law, United Healthcare’s national vice president of Asian Initiatives, told NJBIZ. “We strive to make it easier for them to navigate the complex world of health care options.”

Law said that Asian-Americans will benefit from the company’s 150 bilingual associates, and that the new store will offer Asian-Americans customer service, seminars given by physicians that will offer general health and lifestyle advice, as well as retirement planning and driving safety classes.

“Asians prefer face-to-face interaction in an environment that they can feel safe in and talk to us in their own language, and we can help them navigate their healthcare options,” Law said.

Representatives at the store speak Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin and Asian-Indian dialects, and will offer everything from group healthcare, employer-sponsored plans, low-income options and Medicaid options. The store is located off the Palisades Parkway.

CREDIT: Vince Calio