Who: United Healthcare Services, a subsidiary of United Healthcare Corp. acquires HealthPartners of Arizona (HPA), headquartered in Phoenix. HPA is among the fastest growing health plans in the state with more than 680,000 members.
When: The agreement was announced Oct. 5 and is expected to be finalized this fall, pending regulatory approval.
Effect on PR/Marketing: As a major employer in the Arizona market, HPA's acquisition, was eagerly anticipated by its employees and local media for the past year, when the health plan announced it was looking for a venture partner or buyer.
"It has been a painful waiting period because everyone assumes that there is a [corporate] plan in place, complete from A to Z," says Steven Feinberg, HPA's director of corporate communication, referring to the media's hunger for detailed information about the transaction, which wasn't available until recently.
Consequently, most of the merger communiciations strategy has focused on setting the record straight with the media (primarily addressing the rumor mill) and making sure that HPA's 1,000-plus employees and other stakeholder audiences were updated on the status of HPA's negotiations.
United's corporate PR office wasn't involved with this transaction beyond the national press release that went out Oct. 5, says Phil Soucheray, United's corporate spokesman.
M & A Campaign: For the past year, HPA has had to keep the media at bay because there was no progress to report until the United deal was announced.
Unfortunately, like many organizations that are restricted by what they can say during acquisition negotiations, the media perceived HPA as withholding information, which left the health plan vulnerable to rumors, says Feinberg.
The rumors ranged from potential HPA suitors to, most recently, United's viability as a possible buyer given its well-publicized failed merger plans with Humana in August.
"We had to take a straightforward [approach] to the media, emphasizing that we couldn't say [the United transaction] was a done deal until it actually was," says Feinberg of the media hype.
In terms of internal communications strategy, HPA focused on reaching key targets -primarily employees, clients, doctors and brokers -with negotiation updates and corporate reactions to the deal's press coverage.
This was done through monthly employee meetings, email communications and letters to HPA's members, employer groups and brokers.
In responding to some of the negative or inaccurate media coverage, Feinberg says his department was up front with employees, emphasizing that "the media seemed to know a lot more than they really did."
(United Healthcare Corp., Phil Soucheray, 612/936-7301; HPA, Steve Feinberg, 602/664-5000)