UHG Outlines Strategies to Improve Health System, Access to Care

UnitedHealth Group’s 2020 Sustainability Report revealed several ways that payers are helping the healthcare system advance to improve health equity, access to care, and other key aims.

“For more than 40 years, UnitedHealth Group has focused on developing strong and effective governance practices through compliance, board diversity and independence, a commitment to ethics and integrity, and an emphasis on data security and supply chain management,” the  press release summarized.

UnitedHealth Group focused on six areas of sustainability in progressing toward a high-performing health system.

First, the company emphasized expanding access to care.

The payer leveraged its mental healthcare services platform, AbleTo, to increase access to virtual care for behavioral and mental healthcare needs. Half of all members who engaged with the platform saw their depression decline and hospitalizations dropped by 48 percent.

Remote patient monitoring platforms also served to expand UnitedHealth Group members’ access to care. For those receiving home healthcare, the payer brought hospital readmissions down by up to 74 percent and mortality declined by as much as 40 percent.

The payer also donated to medical schools that train primary care physicians, who are in high demand across the nation.

UnitedHealth Group’s Virtual Primary Care plan became available in 2020 in order to increase access to coverage and to incentivize members to turn to virtual care for their basic health screenings and primary care needs.

Second, the payer sought to improve affordability.

Recognizing that members who use price transparency tools have lower healthcare costs, the payer offered a digital transparency tool for prescription drug pricing. Members saved on average $225 per prescription due to this tool, the payer shared.

Value-based care was another key part of UnitedHealth Group’s strategy to lower costs. 

In particular, they leaned on accountable care organizations to advance the payer’s value-based care strategy. According to UnitedHealth Group, its 1,500 value-based contracts with accountable care organizations lowered emergency department visits by 16 percent, hospital admissions by 15 percent, and increased preventive cancer screenings by 14 percent.

The payer also targeted high cost sites of care and prescription drug costs in its endeavor to make care more affordable.

Third, UnitedHealth Group tackled challenges in the patient experience. Patient experience data can come through a variety of channels and it matters at every stage of care.

The payer focused on members with complex and special needs. Members could connect with a care manager who would coordinate their care. As a result of this program, care managers identified over 1.7 million care gaps in the Medicare Advantage and dual special needs plan communities alone.

In order to improve patient experience, UnitedHealth Group also worked on improving provider experience through clinical decision support tools. As a result of using these tools, participating providers were 30 percent more likely to direct members to lower-cost sites of care.

Fourth, the payer also focused on improving patient outcomes in chronic disease management, particularly diabetes and oncology management. 

UnitedHealth Group leveraged digital tools to improve diabetes management through its Level2 program. The program saw 90 percent of members who started the program with high HbA1c levels improve their HbA1c levels within approximately three months. Some members even stopped having to take medication.

For oncology patients, UnitedHealth Group’s oncology management program offered members access to Centers of Excellence and a care manager to coordinate care. The payer reported a ten percent reduction in healthcare spending on members in this program and a six percent decrease in in inpatient admissions.

The payer also targeted health literacy through its Health Literacy Innovations Program. The program released a glossary of healthcare terminology for members to reference.

Fifth, UnitedHealth Group sought to advance health equity through four strategies.

The company used population health management to design personalized interventions. This strategy resulted in an 83 percent decline in postpartum care disparities for Black mothers in Ohio, 42 percent decline for Black women in Michigan, and 40 percent decline for rural women in Hawaii.

The payer also invested in scholarships for students of color entering the healthcare workforce. In particular, it supported students who intended to work in underserved communities, primary care practices, and health informatics.

Additionally, UnitedHealth Group donated towards community-based organizations that worked to reduce care disparities. And the payer used analytics to discern gaps and disparities in care.

And finally, the company engaged in social responsibility by supporting communities.

One of the key ways in which UnitedHealth Group sought to impact local communities was through its own employees. The payer highlighted and incentivized employees who served in their communities and provided an employee assistance fund through which UnitedHealth Group employees could help each other.

In addition to these six strategies, the payer sought to bolster its diversity internally and endorsed sustainable business practices such as prioritizing cybersecurity to protect members’ data.