UnitedHealth’s Optum: We’ll Lure More Providers To New Partnership Model

Executives at UnitedHealth Group’s Optum health services unit believe more medical care providers will be drawn to the company’s new strategy to take on non-clinical operations for local health systems.

Optum this week announced plans to take over the ‘non-clinical functions’ of John Muir Health in California’s San Francisco Bay area for an undisclosed sum. Optum said it will take on information technology, revenue cycle management, analytics, purchasing and claims management. About 540 John Muir Health employees, or nearly 10% of the health system’s workforce, will become part of Optum, the companies said.

The arrangement is a different kind for Optum, which has been buying up doctor practices, outpatient clinics, surgery centers and urgent care facilities across the country. But Optum expects expects this new model to be a success that will interest more health systems like John Muir, a healthcare system that boasts a network of more than 1,000 physicians and two large hospitals east of San Francisco.

“Our market knowledge suggests that several hundred regional health systems have similar size and market opportunity as John Muir,” Eric Murphy, CEO at OptumInsight told analysts on the company’s second quarter earnings call. “We’re already in discussions with several high performing independent community based systems and look forward to establishing continued partnerships, similar to John Muir Health, with health systems across the industry.”

UnitedHealth and Optum executives described the partnership with John Muir as a “multi-year relationship.”

“Our partnership with John Muir Health really represents one of the most comprehensive in the healthcare industry, between a delivery system and a health care services company,” Murphy said. “The integrated scope of services includes acute and ambulatory revenue cycle management end-to-end information technology services, ambulatory care coordination, enterprise analytics, purchasing and consulting services.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2019/07/19/unitedhealths-optum-well-lure-more-providers-to-new-partnership-strategy/#67796e27603d