Oxford Health Plans, Inc provides small business health insurance benefit products in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, and through its parent company United Healthcare, in the United States. Oxford offers individual, small group, large group, and Medicare Products. Oxford was one of the fastest growing companies in the United States in the early to mid 1990s and the market leader in the HMO market in NYC during that time. Because of its robust network filled with some of the NYC area’s leading physicians Oxford’s network has continued to be the benchmark network to which other carriers compare themselves.
Oxford’s largest network is the Freedom Network, though many folks still consider it a product. Within the Freedom Network, many products can be offered such as H.S.As (health savings accounts), HMOs (health maintenance organization), POSs (point-of-services), PPOs (preferred provider organization. The slightly smaller network Oxford offers is its Liberty Network, which is approximately 80% as large as Freedom. Both networks offer similar products such as the Oxford Metro EPO, which can have access to either the Liberty network (lower premium, smaller network) or the Freedom network (bigger network and higher premium) and the Oxford Direct, which is normally a point-of-service plan.
Another common product is the Oxford Freedom Select or Oxford Liberty Select. In addition in 2010 Oxford introduced an HMO product, the Oxford Liberty HMO. It sold very well throughout the year; however when Oxford submitted to New York State’s Insurance Department for it’s requested premium increase, they were shut down. As such, they have somewhat hidden the product though it is still well priced and offered in New York. They hide that fact as they do not really ‘want” to sell it.
Oxford is still a managed care company and counts most of its success on operational excellence, and process management. As Oxford is owned by one of the largest insurers in the country, United Healthcare, they now have a great offering for small businesses (2 or more employees) for dental, vision, and also many healthcare related discount programs (LASIX etc..). This offering is done through a United Healthcare company, Oxford Benefit Management. In the metropolitan New York market, the Oxford Benefit Management plans can be offered without purchasing Oxford medical, as such, it is a great suite of products to couple with any medical insurer.
