Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its ratings on UnitedHealth Group Inc. (United) and various subsidiaries (see list) on Aug. 15, 2002. At the same time, Standard&Poor's lowered its ratings on certain United HMOs and insurance companies to reflect a change in Standard&Poor's group methodology criteria. The new criteria limit the amount of support provided to a strategically important subsidiary to within one notch of the parent. Standard&Poor's assessment of the underlying fundamentals for United's operations remains unchanged. Standard&Poor's also assigned ratings to two United HMOs that had been unrated. The outlook on all these companies is stable. United is expected to have a net membership gain of about 1 million people
