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Area of Expertise

Area of Expertise is an indicator within our medical directory that displays your unique experience, training and certifications. This indicator helps members identify in-network health care professionals who can best meet their special health care needs. UnitedHealthcare outlines a number of Area of Expertise indicators, ranging from working with hearing impaired populations, to caring for patients living with HIV/AIDS, to specific training in medication-assisted treatment for substance abuse and more.  

The Area of Expertise indicators are distinct from a health care professional’s practicing specialty and clinical focus. For instance, an OB/GYN may have a clinical focus in endometriosis and infertility, and also have expertise in working with visually impaired individuals.

We encourage you to review, identify or update your Area of Expertise using the instructions below.

Explore all Areas of Expertise Indicators
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To review the information in your medical directory profile:

  1. Go to the network medical directory and choose a UnitedHealthcare plan type that’s within your contract with us
    • For instance, if you’re only contracted for Medicare plans, choose that selection. If you’re contracted for all of our plans, choose that option
  2. Follow the instructions to select a specific plan
  3. Check the location at the top of the page and change it to your correct city and state.
  4. Type your name in the search bar and click on your listing, then click the “Area of Expertise” tab
    • Note: The Area of Expertise tab will NOT display if there are no indicators associated with your profile

There are two ways Area of Expertise can be designated in our network medical directory:

  1. Self reporting: You or a designated representative can self-report an Area of Expertise by:
    • Submit a request through the My Practice Profile tool on the UnitedHealthcare provider portal.* If you don’t have access to My Practice Profile, please use one of the other options noted below.
    • If you self-report an Area of Expertise, it will be displayed within the directory for that specific provider only. It will not display on a group, hospital or facility listing that the provider may be associated with.
    • Provide the Area of Expertise information on a roster template. (This option is only available for large facilities or health care systems.)
    • Email hpdemo@uhc.com to ask for assistance in adding information.
  2. UnitedHealthcare adds an indicator: Occasionally, we may choose to add an Area of Expertise indicator to specific provider profiles. This would happen based on a review of historical claim data or after verifying expertise through a primary source, such as the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) database for data-waivered providers.  When this happens, you’ll be notified of the designation.

*If a provider self-reports an Area of Expertise, please note that the Area of Expertise will be displayed within the directory at the provider level. A provider may opt out of directory display by self-reporting that the directory indicator for the AOE is “No”.

You can update this indicator(s) in the directory or opt-out of displaying the information in one of three ways:

  • Submit a request through the My Practice Profile tool on the UnitedHealthcare provider portal.* If you don’t have access to My Practice Profile, please use one of the other options noted below.
    • If you self-report an Area of Expertise, it will be displayed within the directory for that specific provider only. It will not display on a group, hospital or facility listing that the provider may be associated with.
  • Provide the Area of Expertise information on a roster template. (This option is only available for large facilities or health care systems.)
  • Email hpdemo@uhc.com to ask for assistance in adding information.

Information to include with your request

  1. Your full provider name
  2. The area(s) of expertise you would like UnitedHealthcare to remove from or update in your profile
  3. Your NPI and TIN
  4. Reason for AREA OF EXPERTISE update:
    • Please update directory indicator(s) to “No” for [list all area(s) of expertise you wish to remove from directory depiction]
    • Area of Expertise [list of area of expertise] no longer applies and should be inactivated
    • Please add the following area of expertise to my profile: [list of area of expertise]

Note: If you want to inactivate or remove an Area of Expertise from your directory, the change must apply to all TINS that you are associated with. We cannot inactivate or remove a designation for a single TIN and leave other TINs unchanged. This is because Area of Expertise information in the directory displays at the provider level, not the group, hospital or facility level. 

Questions?

If you have questions, reach out to your local network management contact. If you’re not sure who your contact is, check this listing to find information by state.