Recently, Richard Migliori, MD, executive vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at UnitedHealth Group, and Margaret-Mary Wilson MD, executive vice president and associate chief medical officer at UnitedHealth outlined several long-term care strategies. Highlights of their plan was to close gaps in care and redirect care to more cost-effective sites.
- Aims to close gaps: According to the recent Sustainability 2020 report, UnitedHealth aims to close 600 million gaps in care by 2025. Dr. Wilson said UnitedHealth defines a gap in care as a moment when patient care falls short of clinical standards, such as a missed cancer screening.
- Multiple initiatives: The company plans to close gaps through multiple initiatives, including Optum’s HouseCalls program — which connects patients in their home with primary care and virtual care services — and EHR-connected point of care assist tools.
- Lower hospital costs: UnitedHealth plans to move more than 55 % of members’ outpatient surgeries and radiology services from hospital-based sites to lower-cost ones by 2030. The CMOs said if more joint replacement surgeries were performed in ambulatory surgery centers, it could save the U.S. health system $3 billion annually and lead to 500,000 fewer hospitalizations.
- Telemedicine: Of the 57,000 physicians in OptumCare, only about 150 were using telemedicine before the pandemic, Dr. Migliori said. After the pandemic hit, more than 17,000 physicians got qualified to treat patients through virtual visits. OptumCare providers went from treating about 50,000 telehealth cases a year to more than 2 million in this first quarter alone, Dr. Migliori said.
- Lower rates: The use of telehealth has fallen considerably for some time. While at one point 40 % of visits were completed through telemedicine, that percentage has dropped to about 15 % and seems to be holding, Dr. Migliori said. In behavioral health, though, 60 % of visits are being done virtually.