Kathryn Sullivan Joins UnitedHealthcare as CEO, Central Region; Jeff Lucht Joins as Senior Vice President

UnitedHealthcare, a division of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), today announced the appointment of Kathryn Sullivan as CEO, Central Region, and Jeff Lucht as Senior Vice President. Steven Nelson, who has served as president of AmeriChoice, a UnitedHealthcare sister company, has been appointed CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s West Region. A health care veteran with more than 25 years of experience, Sullivan joins UnitedHealthcare from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), where she served as senior vice president and chief financial officer, as well as treasurer. Before joining BCBSA in 2004, Sullivan was president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, which she joined in 1982. Sullivan will be responsible for operations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. She will report directly to Gail K. Boudreaux, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and president of UnitedHealthcare, and will be located in Chicago. Lucht will lead a new initiative to assess and strengthen UnitedHealthcare’s market position in its Small Group business. He will be responsible for leading the review of pricing, product features and positioning in each of UnitedHealthcare’s markets, with a focus on improving its competitive position. Lucht comes to UnitedHealthcare after more than 20 years with Aetna, where he served most recently as president, national accounts, Mid-Atlantic region. Lucht’s broad and diverse track record of success in health care includes regional management, actuarial, underwriting, sales, provider network and operations experience with mid-sized and national accounts. He will be based in Maryland and also will report to Boudreaux. Nelson brings 20 years of health care experience in profit and not-for-profit executive roles. Prior to serving as president of AmeriChoice, he was president of Health Net Inc.’s eastern region, and also led the company’s national Medicare business. As CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s West region, Nelson will oversee health plans in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The West regional headquarters will be in Cypress, CA; Nelson will report directly to Boudreaux. "UnitedHealthcare is fortunate to be able to continue to draw top talent from across the health care industry,” said Ms. Boudreaux. "Kathryn Sullivan and Steven Nelson are extremely successful and experienced health care leaders and Jeff Lucht is an executive with broad and diverse health care experience. I am confident that their leadership will help us to enhance our customers’ experience and continue to grow our business.” Sullivan and Nelson join Jeff Alter and Dan Ohman, who lead UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast and Southeast regions, respectively. Alter was previously chief operating officer of UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast region, prior to which he was Vice President of Strategic Financial Planning at Oxford Health Plans. Ohman has been with UnitedHealthcare for 24 years, serving in numerous positions in sales and operations. Before becoming regional CEO in May 2007, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare of Georgia, Inc. for five years. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. The company organizes access to quality, affordable healthcare services on behalf of approximately 26 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 560,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,800 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain statements that constitute "forward-looking” statements as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. Generally the words "believe,” "expect,” "intend,” "estimate,” "anticipate,” "plan,” "project,” "will” and similar expressions, identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. These statements may contain information about trends and uncertainties and involve risks. We caution that actual results could differ materially from those that management expects, depending on the outcome of certain factors. We do not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements.