Sure, the money’s nice, but Wednesday’s class action settlement between the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and UnitedHealth Group Inc. did more than put a record $895 million dent in the wallet of the nation’s No. 2 health insurer.

Beyond the eventual payout, Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth agreed to several key changes to how it runs its business. Experts say that those changes burnish CalPERS’ image as a crusader for better corporate governance, the nuts-and-bolts of how public companies fulfill their duties to investors and other stakeholders.

CalPERS was a lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleging that UnitedHealth manipulated executive stock options to inflate their value. It claimed it lost millions on its investments in the company’s stock because of the manipulations.

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