Fox Guarding the Hen House

[somarco]

In 2018, former UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann made a clear statement to investors: Optum's growth strategy did not include ownership of inpatient care facilities. In other words, the company would not build or own hospitals.

Instead, one piece of the plan to eventually make Optum's care delivery arm, Optum Care, a $100 million business by 2028 was partnering with health systems to manage administrative services such as revenue cycle management and information technology.

Optum also revealed in November it now employs or is affiliated with nearly 90,000 physicians and another 40,000 advanced practice clinicians serving tens of millions of people every year. Optum Care employed or worked with 38,000 physicians in 2018.

Optum didn't build hospitals — it hired their employees

"Former UnitedHealth Group CEO reveals Optum's growth strategy: partnerships with health systems for administrative services, not hospital ownership."

www.beckershospitalreview.com

 

[Packerland]

without the strategic partnership zeroed out in my mind, this hospital would’ve been gone…At this point Dr’s Nurse PA’s etc are not part of this alliance..


October 4, 2023

ProHealth Care and Optum Launch Strategic Relationship to Enhance the Health Care Experience for ProHealth Patients​

Collaboration will strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of administrative operations.

WAUKESHA, Wis. (Oct. 4, 2023) – ProHealth Care and Optum have entered into a strategic relationship to enhance patient care, deliver innovative technology solutions and help ProHealth Care maintain its focus on serving patients and the community.
Through the relationship, Optum will assume responsibility for ProHealth Care’s revenue cycle management, information technology, informatics, analytics and inpatient care management. The more than 800 ProHealth Care employees who work in these departments will transition to Optum and continue to support the health system and the local community.
“ProHealth Care has a long history of building strong strategic partnerships to accelerate our progress and better meet the needs of our patients,” said Susan Edwards, chief executive officer at ProHealth Care. “Our work with Optum will strengthen our administrative functions as we continue our growth as a premier independent, community-based health system.”
The ProHealth Care employees who will join Optum will benefit from new opportunities for professional development and career advancement while also gaining access to new tools and technologies to do their work.
“Optum and ProHealth Care share a similar mission focused on transforming health care for the people and communities we serve,” said Chris Pass, president, market performance partnerships, Optum. “We look forward to working with ProHealth Care to implement technology solutions that simplify patient and provider experiences and support administrators, all with the aim of ensuring ongoing, high-quality care.”

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About ProHealth Care
For more than a century, ProHealth Care has been the health care leader in Waukesha County and surrounding areas, providing outstanding care across a full spectrum of services. The people of ProHealth Care strive to continuously improve the health and well-being of the community by combining skill, compassion and innovation. The ProHealth family includes ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital, ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital-Mukwonago, ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, ProHealth Rehabilitation Hospital of Wisconsin, ProHealth Medical Group, the UW Health Cancer Center at ProHealth Care, Moreland Surgery Center, ProHealth AngelsGrace Hospice, ProHealth Home Care, ProHealth West Wood Health & Fitness Center and ProHealth Regency Senior Communities. Learn more at ProHealthCare.org.

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About Optum
Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 310,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH). For more information, visit www.Optum.com or follow Optum on LinkedIn.

 

[somarco]

The largest employer of physicians in the United States is not HCA, the VA, or Kaiser Permanente — it's UnitedHealth Group's Optum.

With 70,000 employed or aligned physicians across more than 2,200 locations in 2023, Optum has cemented itself at the forefront of the quickly changing healthcare delivery landscape. For comparison, Bloomberg reported in 2021 that Ascension employs or is affiliated with 49,000 physicians, HCA has 47,000 and Kaiser has 24,000. The U.S. had 1.07 million active physicians in 2022.

Meet America's largest employer of physicians: UnitedHealth Group

The largest employer of physicians in the United States is not HCA, the VA, or Kaiser Permanente — it's UnitedHealth Group's Optum.

www.beckerspayer.com