Kenneth I. Shine to Join UnitedHealth Group Board of Directors

MINNETONKA, Minn.--(Business Wire)--
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) announced that Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., will join
the company`s Board of Directors.

Stephen J. Hemsley, president and chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group,
said, "For more than 30 years, Ken Shine has been a leader in the health care
community, and he is a trusted authority on improving health care and addressing
key issues in medicine. He will bring to UnitedHealth Group not only his
professional medical experience, but also his vast knowledge of the U.S. health
care system and the challenges it faces, his commitments to evidence-based care,
expanding medical research and patient safety programs, and his expertise in
global health care issues. We will benefit greatly by having his thoughtful
voice on our Board."

Dr. Shine is Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for the University of
Texas System. The University of Texas System is made up of nine academic
universities and six health institutions, serving the higher education of
194,000 students. The Office of Health Affairs has primary responsibility for
the oversight of the six health institutions of the System, including budgets,
academic planning and programs, health care delivery, facilities planning and
construction, and personnel. Dr. Shine also served the University of Texas
System as interim Chancellor from May 1 through December 18, 2008.

Before joining the University of Texas System in November 2003, Dr. Shine was
President of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). A component of the National
Academy of Sciences, the IOM provides unbiased, evidence-based, and
authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to
policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society and the public
at large. Under Dr. Shine's leadership from 1992 until 2002, IOM researchers led
studies on nutrition, food safety and child development and examined
availability and side effects of vaccines. Dr. Shine also organized symposia to
underscore the importance of cultural sensitivity in health care and supported
programs to increase immunization rates, decrease use of tobacco among
adolescents and improve care of the dying. He emphasized the importance of
broadly communicating the results of scientific findings and recommendations and
initiated new IOM programs in patient safety and quality of care.

Dr. Shine was founding Director of the RAND Center for Domestic and
International Health Security. He led the Center's efforts to make health a
central component of U.S. foreign policy and to guide the Center's evolving
research agenda, applying his decades of experience in working with
international health experts on global issues such as emerging infectious
illnesses, bioethics, and access to care.

Dr. Shine is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine. A cardiologist and physiologist, he received
his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1961. Before becoming president of the
IOM, he was Dean and Provost for Medical Sciences at UCLA.

Dr. Shine is a member of many honorary and academic societies, including Phi
Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology,
Master of the American College of Physicians, and was elected to the Institute
of Medicine in 1988. He served as Chairman of the Council of Deans of the
Association of American Medical Colleges from 1991-1992, and was President of
the American Heart Association from 1985-1986.

UnitedHealth Group`s Board is expected to appoint Dr. Shine as an independent
director at its regularly scheduled meeting in the first quarter 2009. In 2007,
UnitedHealth Group`s Board committed to adding five new independent directors to
the Board by the end of 2009. Dr. Shine`s appointment will be the fourth new
director added to the Board since that commitment was made to shareholders.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to
making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn.,
UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six
operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth,
Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses,
UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.

UnitedHealth Group
Investor:
John Penshorn, 952-936-7214
or
Brett Manderfeld, 952-936-7216
or
Media:
Tyler Mason, 714-299-5730

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