Regulatory Frameworks and Treaties Affecting UnitedHealth Group Inc. in Australia

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Added on 2024/07/29

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This paper examines the regulatory frameworks and international treaties that impact the operations of UnitedHealth Group Inc. in Australia. It explores key legislation such as the Environmental Protection (Waste Management) Regulation 2000, the Health Quality and Complaints Commission Act 2006, and the Private Health Facilities Act 1999, highlighting their implications for the company's healthcare services, employee wellness, and tax compliance. The paper also delves into the significance of international agreements like the Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA), the Clinical Trials framework, and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, analyzing their influence on UnitedHealth Group's operations and its commitment to providing quality healthcare in Australia. Finally, the paper discusses the impact of the Paris Agreement on the company's environmental sustainability efforts.

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Table of Contents
1: Description of UnitedHealth Group Inc..................................................................................3
2: Regulatory frameworks which affect the operations of UnitedHealth Group Inc...................4
3: Treaties, Conventions and Agreements:.................................................................................. 7
References:.................................................................................................................................... 10
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1: Description of UnitedHealth Group Inc.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is a leading American company that is working to provide quality
healthcare services to the peoples at reasonable prices. It is working in the healthcare industry
and providing services in more than 130 countries. The company was founded in 1977 as United
Healthcare Corporation and in 1984 it was converted into a public company. Due to providing
high quality and innovative healthcare solutions, it was rewarded by reader choice awards as the
best health care plan provider. The company is fully dedicated to involving the innovations and
new technology in its products and services so that quality services can be delivered to the
community. In December 2015, approx. 200000 peoples were employed in the group and as per
the last update in 2017, 260000 persons were employed to serve the community. Currently
approx. 285000 peoples are working globally to support the activities of the company.
Headquarters of the company is situated in Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan.
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2: Regulatory frameworks which affect the operations of UnitedHealth Group Inc.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is engaged in the healthcare sector and dedicated to providing
innovative and easy healthcare solutions to the Australian peoples through it's focused and tech-
friendly workforce and capabilities. In Australia, There are several legal acts and regulations are
applicable to regulate the activities of healthcare companies and compliance with these rules is
necessary for each domestic and international company. Some frameworks which are currently
applicable in Australia are explained below:
Acts under health sector:
Environmental Protection (Waste Management) Regulation 2000:
It is the revised framework of environmental protection act 1994 and waste management policy
2000 that is issued to ensure the safe the dispatch of medial wastage to protect the environment.
Every organisation like UnitedHealth Group Inc. that is providing health and medical services is
bounded to follow the rules of this act that are issued to control the negative impact of medical
wastage on the country’s environment. Under this act, different categories of medical wastage
are classified and each entity of the healthcare sector is bounded to manage its waste as per
denoted classification (Queensland Health, 2018). This act is regulated by the (EPA)
Environmental Protection Agency and UnitedHealth Group Inc. is bounded to follow rules of
this act.
Health Quality and Complaints Commission Act 2006:
This act is applicable on UnitedHealth Group Inc. and company is liable to follow the provisions
denoted by the act. Under this act, a healthcare commission was established by the government
of Australia which works to monitor and improve the conditions of healthcare services in
Australia. Commission also works as prevent for the peoples from unethical behaviour of
healthcare companies and authorised to take action on complaints of peoples regarding private
and public healthcare organisations (Queensland Health, 2018).
Private Health Facilities Act 1999:
This act is applicable to each private company like UnitedHealth Group Inc. that is working in
the healthcare sector of Australia and it is effective with Private Health Facilities Regulations
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2000. The framework is issued to protect the health of peoples from unethical behaviours who
are taking healthcare services from private service providers. This act denotes the licencing and
registering requirements for those companies that want to provide health care services in
Australia and UnitedHealth Group Inc. is bounded to comply with the rules of this act.
Acts under employee wellness:
Workplace Health & Safety Legislation
Various acts like Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, Codes of Practice, 2005 and
Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 are applicable in Australia to control the risk at
medical workplaces (Queensland Health, 2018). This act is applicable to all public and private
organisations that are working in the healthcare industry of Australia. It is issued to ensure the
security of peoples which are working in different healthcare segments and faces the risk of
different medical harm at the workplace.
Disability Discrimination Act 1992
This act is issued to prevent the interest of employees from the negative behaviour of others due
to physical or mental disability. Acts state that if physical or mental disability of a person does
not affect the desired quality of work, employers should work to ensure the healthy working
environment for each employee and he is liable to stop the discrimination due to the disability of
a person (Queensland Health, 2018).
This act also creates a responsibility to employees also and states that is a disability of a person is
seems to create risk for others then he or she has to ask his employer about the risk and employer
can take action according to the law.
Acts under Tax Compliance:
Transfer price regulations (Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law (MAAL)):
This act was issued to regulate the related party transaction of multinational companies to reduce
the tax evasion chances. The act states that a multinational company like united healthcare Inc.
should make a price chart for those similar services that are provided to the related parties. It
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stops the companies to fix their transmission values too little or high and ensures correct
payment of taxes (Nixon, 2018).
How it is affecting the United Healthcare Inc.
All the above regulations are issued to govern the activities of multinational companies like
United Healthcare and stop the unethical acts of multinational companies. All above-stated acts
under the healthcare segment are working to ensure the delivery of quality services to each
citizen of Australia. Ministry of healthcare is issuing and regulatory body of each healthcare
framework and it works to control the events of multinational companies working in Australia so
that health of environment and citizens managed at standard level (Davies, et. al., 2016) For
example, Act of Waste Management works with environmental safety standards and breach of
these regulations will create heavy plenty for the company. Non-compliance of the legal
framework may harm the goodwill of the company and it is possible that regular breach of
regulations become a reason for the stop of business in Australia.
All employee wellness acts are issued to provide a healthy working environment to peoples that
are working in multinational companies like United Healthcare. These regulations work for the
betterment of employees that are working in multinational companies and save them from the
unethical activities of management. For example, Workplace healthcare Act works for the
betterment of those employees which works in the medical care and a risk to get disease always
exists. The act creates the obligation for all health care units including united healthcare Inc. to
arrange all safety equipment that is necessary to prevent employees from adverse situations
(Davies, et. al., 2016). The obligation of this act creates an extra cost of operations but the
company has to follow the rules to continue the operations.
Tax regulations also have a significant impact on the business of united healthcare and company
has to follow all regulations strictly (Nixon, 2018). Like company has to set correct transfer
prices of services provided to the related parties in Australia so that evasion of tax can be
stopped and government of Australia receive the correct amount of taxes. Non-compliance of
rules may affect the continuity of operations in Australia (Davies, et. al., 2016).
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3: Treaties, Conventions and Agreements:
 Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA)
This agreement is an overseas agreement that was made between the government of Australia
and other eleven countries. Regulation is focused on the wellness of citizens of member
countries and ensures a limited critical Medicare assistance during the travelling of member
countries (iSelect, 2018). Under the cover of RHCA, a person is eligible for basic and primary
medical treatment in an emergency if he fulfils some denoted conditions. Medical cover for some
services like ambulance, dental issues, cost of treatment at private hospitals do not cover by this
agreement but it works for a safeguard for the citizens of member countries and prevents them
from adverse medical conditions. Member countries of the agreement are Sweden, Italy, Ireland,
Malta, Belgium, United Kingdom, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway (iSelect,
2018).
Impact on the services of United Healthcare Inc
This agreement bounds the company to provide basic services to the citizens of member
countries without receiving any payment. The company has to provide denoted medical services
to the visitors of member counties and payment for such services will be reimbursed by the
government.
 Clinical Trials:
A detailed policy was issued by the Australian government to regulate the clinical Trials
activities of companies. Under this regulatory framework, a tax rebate for research and
development activities is available for each company. This rebate is motivating the multinational
companies to improve their services through continuous innovation and researches so that a
quality healthcare solution can be availed to the citizens. Rebate of Tax is only available on the
completion of some specified services (iSelect, 2018). To promote the research and development
activities within Australia, the government is providing additional Tax rebate if research is
conducted in partnership with a domestic Australian company.
Application of this facility is motivating the United Healthcare Inc. to find out new healthcare
solutions so that a quality lifestyle can be offered to the Australian peoples. Tax rebate and cash
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back is a great inspiration for the multinational companies to improve research operations. New
researches will increase the quality of medical services and United Healthcare will be able to
provide more effective healthcare solutions to its customers (Australian Government, 2018).
 Examination of the Australian healthcare agreements
The agreements between the Central Administration and the State Governments for the financing
of community hospitals in Australia are known as (AHCAs) Australian Healthcare Agreements.
Public hospitals are one of the crucial segments of Australia’s health care arrangements and lack
of funds is always a serious problem it. It is noted that Australian hospitals of the public sector
are providing high standard services in comparison with member countries of OECD (ACHR,
2018). As the demand of quality healthcare is increasing due to population pressure and other
factors, these agreements are helping to improve the resources for the public healthcare sector so
that a need of reform can be fulfilled and public sector can handle future health care issues. Some
specialities of these agreements are as below:
 These agreements were made to reform the public healthcare sector in short-term, mid-
term and long-term so that future issues can be handled.
 Under this agreement, the government of each state will be liable to conduct an audit of
each type of expenditure and its usage effectiveness to make the reform more effective
(ACHR, 2018).
 In the accordance with the recommendations of these agreements, both state and the
central government has to conduct a public health awareness program to aware the
peoples about common diseases so that pressure coming from these diseases can be
reduced in long-term.
This agreement will motivate the central government to improve tax collections to provide
funding to states so that they can operate the public health programs effectively. Improvement of
new taxes will improve the cost of operations and pressure of price improvement will be faced
by the company.
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 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
This convention was focused to control the consumption of Tobacco products to ensure the well
standard life to each person and the Australian government was a formal partner in this
convention. Recommendations of this convention were adopted by the Australian government to
aware the peoples about the adverse impact of Tobacco so that consumption of it can be reduced
significantly and pressure on public healthcare can be reduced in long-term (Australian
Government, 2018). Tobacco control involves a ban on the promotion of tobacco, issuance of
new guidelines about packaging, and public awareness to reduce the consumption of tobacco and
associated products. Under this convention, the recommendation to impose of the additional tax
burden is adopted by the Australian government and 70% tax of retail price is imposed by the
Australian government on Tobacco products.
 Paris Agreement
The Australian government is fully dedicated to protecting the nation from adverse climate
changes and for the same purpose, a global climate agreement was signed among United Nations
Convention on Climate Change at Parties on 30 -11-2011 to 12-12-2015. This convention was
participated by all counties of G-20 group and UNFCCC and, a target to reduce the gas
emissions was set out by all participating countries. Under this agreement, the Australian
government has a target to reduce its gas emission by 30% to 2030 (Australian Government Paris
Agreement, 2018).
Impact of the convention on the business of United Healthcare Group Inc
This convention has a direct impact on the products and services that are offered by the company
in Australia. Resolution of this convention forces the Australian government to change its
different industry policies to protect the climate and due to the same, the company has to change
its products to ensure the minimum harm to the environment (Australian Government, 2018). It
will force the company to adopt new ways of production so that gas emission from the
production of different medical products can be reduced at the desired level.
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References:
1. ACHR. (2018). Examination of the Australian Healthcare Agreements - Australian
Centre for Health Research Limited [Online] ACHR. Available at:
http://www.achr.org.au/examination-of-the-australian-healthcare-agreements/ [Accessed
on 27-auguest-2018]
2. Australian Government (2018). | WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
(2018). [Online] Department of Health Available at:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/tobacco-conv [Accessed
on 27-auguest-2018]
3. Australian Government (2018). Paris Agreement [Online] Department of the
Environment and Energy. Available at: http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-
change/government/international/paris-agreement [Accessed on 27-auguest-2018]
4. Davies, A., Bergami, R., & Miah, S. J. (2016). Implications of managing health related
records and relevant information systems within intergovernmental agencies. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1606.00882.
5. iSelect. (2018) Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) | [Online] iSelect. (2018)
Available at: https://www.iselect.com.au/overseas-visitors-health-cover/reciprocal-
health-care-agreements/ [Accessed on 27-auguest-2018]
6. Nixon, G. (2018). Australia's transfer pricing requirements 2018 - [Online] Accru.
Available at: https://www.accru.com/2018/07/transfer-pricing-requirements/ [Accessed
on 27-auguest-2018]
7. Queensland Health. (2018). Legislation | [Online] Queensland Health Available at:
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/chrisp/ic_guidelines/legislation [Accessed on 27-auguest-
2018]
8. Statistica.com (2018). UnitedHealth Group individuals employed 2010-2017 | Statistic.
Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/622047/individuals-employed-by-
unitedhealth-group/ [Accessed on 27-auguest-2018]
9. UnitedHealth Group (2018). UnitedHealth Group-company details. [Online] Available at:
https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/contact-us.html [Accessed on 27-auguest-2018]
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Regulatory Frameworks and Treaties Affecting UnitedHealth Group Inc. in Australia

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