UnitedHealthcare wants to provide Iowans with an alternative to Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield for health insurance in Iowa, said William Tracy, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Heartland States, which includes Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

“We’ve looked at specific marketplaces where the competition is such that we can have a presence and grow our business, and really afford consumers additional choices in the marketplace that they don’t have today,” Tracy said. “Iowa is clearly one of those opportunities.”

UnitedHealthcare, which now covers approximately 158,000 Iowans through group or individual health plans, is shooting for a minimum 20 percent annual growth in its business in the state in each of the next two years, Tracy said.

“We’ll be adding additional resources over the next few months to put additional leadership here, as well as more resources in sales and account management,” he said. The company currently employs about 25 people at its Urbandale office.

Some of the growth in Iowa is being driven by business from large employers, among them Wells Fargo & Co., he said.

UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc., has made significant acquisitions within the past three years to beef up its ability to provide products in both the health savings account and Medicare markets. Among those acquisitions was Golden Rule in 2003, which writes all of UnitedHealthcare’s individual and health savings account policies in Iowa.

UnitedHealthcare has both a nationwide provider network as well as a statewide presence, Tracy said.

“Our No. 1 resource is really our network,” he said. “We’re in virtually every county in Iowa, I think 91 or 92 of the 99 counties have a UnitedHealthcare network presence in them now, and we have about 4,700 physicians under contract in the state as well.” Covered individuals traveling outside the state have the advantage of still being covered within its network, he said.

In January of this year, the company launched a health savings account product, and on Jan. 1 plans to introduce a version for small businesses.

In February, UnitedHealthcare will introduce a physician rating program in Iowa as a precursor to a physician pay-for-performance plan it plans to begin by late 2006 or early 2007, Tracy said. Physicians within its network will receive one star if they meet UnitedHealthcare quality standards, or two stars if they meet both quality and efficiency standards.