From adding nearly 20,000 physicians in 2023 to facing an antitrust lawsuit from a California hospital, here are 10 Optum updates Becker's has reported since Oct. 31:
1. Optum added nearly 20,000 physicians in 2023, Optum Health CEO Amar Desai, MD, said. He said Optum has nearly 90,000 employed or affiliated physicians and another 40,000 advanced practice clinicians serving tens of millions of people.
2. Optum patients who are enrolled in fully accountable Medicare Advantage plans — where Optum takes full financial and clinical responsibility — have better health outcomes than patients enrolled in traditional Medicare, according to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
3. Covina, Calif.-based Emanate Health is accusing UnitedHealth Group's Optum of pressuring the system not to compete with Optum in the primary care business, and of steering patients away from their physicians who left Optum to join Emanate's practices.
4. UnitedHealth Group named Shawna Gisch as CEO of Optum Home and Community Care, the company's home-based care division.
5. UnitedHealth Group and its health insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, are facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging an AI algorithm wrongfully denied Medicare Advantage patients care. NaviHealth, the developer of the algorithm that was acquired by Optum in 2020, is also named in the suit.
6. The Justice Department asked a Texas federal court to dismiss its case against Optum-owned SCA Health that alleged the company agreed with competitors not to poach senior-level employees.
7. A former Optum employee will pay $13 million in restitution for his role in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
8. Seven MedExpress Urgent Care clinics — owned by Optum —closed their doors in Florida and Minnesota.
9. Optum will move out of an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based campus with 473,000 square feet of office space by the end of 2023.
10. UnitedHealth Group completed its acquisition of health technology firm EMIS Group. Bordeaux UK Holdings II — a unit of UnitedHealth's Optum business — agreed to acquire the U.K.-based EMIS Group in January 2022 in a $1.51 billion deal. The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority gave the acquisition the green light in late September following an investigation.