For readers of Lab Soft News that may be unaware of this, OptumHealth, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, is the one of the largest employers of physicians in the U.S. (see: With 8k more physicians than Kaiser, Optum is 'scaring the crap out of hospitals'; UnitedHealth Group Soon to Be Largest Employer of Doctors in the US). Here's a quote from this first article:
Since its acquisition of 250 Las Vegas-area physicians in 2008, UnitedHealth Group has steadily expanded its physician workforce to shield itself from competitors and hospitals....To date, the health insurance giant's physician arm, OptumCare, employs or is affiliated with about 30,000 physicians. If OptumCare completes its acquisition of Davita Medical Group, the insurer will tack on another 17,000 physicians to its ranks — making it one of the largest physician employers in America. Hospitals are gobbling up physicians, too. A recent Avalere Health study found that by mid-2016, hospitals employed 42 percent of U.S. physicians. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has roughly 37,000 physicians....Still, Optum outpaces Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's roughly 22,000 physicians by 8,000.
I have been covering the growth of telemedicine, also known as virtual care, for almost eight years (see: Telemedicine Transforms Intensive Care Units in Smaller Hospitals with Remote Monitoring). I believe that it is a solution for many of the problems plaguing healthcare care in the U.S. including a reduction of the cost of care (see: Reducing Healthcare Costs with Virtual Visits; Tangible Evidence Provided) and improvement of the quality of care in rural America (see: How telemedicine is transforming treatment in rural communities). OptumHealth is offering telehealth services through its NowClinic unit with American Well as the provider of turnkey technology (see: American Well Drives Telehealth into Mainstream Healthcare). Below is an excerpt from this latter article:
“Telehealth is a central part of OptumHealth’s vision for providing consumers with convenient, innovative ways to access the quality healthcare they need – on their own terms. We view our NowClinic online care service as a pillar of efforts to help consumers achieve their health and well-being goals,” said Rob Webb, chief executive officer of OptumHealth Care Solutions. “American Well’s Online Care system remains a leader in this market, and we will continue to roll it out to new states via our NowClinic service in the year ahead.”
Let me summarize all of the above. The largest employer of physicians in the country, OptumHealth is emphasizing virtual care. It is a division of the largest health insurance company in the country, UnitedHealth Group (see: Top 5 Largest Health Insurance Payers in the United States). UnitedHealth Group is also pursuing virtual care with its NowClinic subsidiary. The technology platform for NowClinic is American Well which is one of the largest purveyor of virtual care technology. The third largest health insurance company in the country, Aetna, has now merged with CVS which is one of largest purveyors of walk-in primary care with its MinuteClinics (see: CVS Health and Aetna merger closes). These major health insurance companies may thus control at some point in the future a substantial portion of the first tier of healthcare as well as medical referrals associated with patients seen in their clinics.
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