UnitedHealthcare Donates $500,000 to Support Residents of Louisiana Affected by Hurricane Laura

Enabling access to care and early prescription refills for affected members

MINNETONKA, Minn. & BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UnitedHealthcare announced today it is donating $500,000 to the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana to help residents recover and rebuild following the devastating impact of Hurricane Laura.

“We are deeply concerned for the people affected by Hurricane Laura, and we are committed to helping the people in these local Louisiana communities recover and rebuild,” said Dirk McMahon, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare. “Many of these communities are also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, making this an especially challenging time for those who may have lost loved ones or been displaced as a result of the hurricane.”

“The devastation caused by Hurricane Laura affected thousands of people across parts of Louisiana,” said John Bel Edwards, Governor of Louisiana. “We are grateful for UnitedHealthcare’s commitment to the people of Louisiana and its support of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana as we start to recover and rebuild from this hurricane.”

“We are grateful for UnitedHealthcare’s donation to our hurricane recovery work,” said Sara Judson, chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana. “We’ll use the generous contribution to pay for immediate needs that are the first step of the long rebuilding process. We appreciate the outpouring of support we’ve received.”

The company has also taken steps to support health plan participants access care, early prescription refills, including the ability to conduct a Virtual Visit with a doctor* through the UnitedHealthcare smartphone app, and opened a free emotional-support help line to help people who might be affected. The Optum Helpline is free of charge to anyone in the community and is available toll-free at 866-342-6892, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company has also taken action to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees in affected areas, including supporting safe evacuations and providing recovery funding.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.3 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.

*Additional out-of-pocket costs may be required for telemedicine services depending on the plan and any applicable state requirements.