UnitedHealth Group CEO: Future Growth Will Come from Home-Based Care Investments

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) leaders highlighted key growth drivers for the company during a Thursday morning conference call on Q2 2021 financial results. Execs honed in on three main investment areas, with one being a continued bet on Optum, its in-home care provider.

UnitedHealth Group has been one of the more active payers as far as investing in home-based care, launching a house call program years ago and adding to its in-home portfolio with multiple recent acquisitions. It has made a particularly big bet on Optum, along with its ability to serve members in the home, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Whitty said during the call.

Whitty took over as CEO in February, replacing former CEO David Wichmann.

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“We continue to prioritize three key themes that we believe will underpin the next era of growth for our enterprise, and the first is to unlock the collaborative opportunities within and between Optum and UnitedHealthcare,” Whitty said. “A good example of bringing our collective strengths together at scale is the Optum home and community care platform, through which we care for nearly 10 million people.”

The Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Optum is a population health-focused UnitedHealth company that has made waves in different at-home care sectors of late. Optum’s “HouseCalls” line delivered 1.65 miillion in-home visits in 2020, in addition to over 119,000 virtual visits.

Optum reportedly struck a deal early in 2021 to acquire the comprehensive in-home care organization Landmark Health, though that transaction has not been officially announced. Acquiring the Huntington Beach, California-based Landmark — an in-home medical care provider — would significantly increase the company’s already-robust home-based care capabilities.

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Optum also recently acquired the convener naviHealth, which helps bring patients to post-acute care settings, including the home, through advanced data and analytics.

The company offers comprehensive post-acute care for “smoother transitions to the home,” as well as integrated primary and behavioral care for Medicare Advantage (MA) patients who prefer to receive care at home.

“The home and community platform services can reduce post-acute medical care costs by a quarter, unnecessary readmissions by up to a fifth and hospital admissions by up to 25%,” Whitty said.

Optum’s Q2 revenues totaled $38.3 billion, an over 17% increase year over year. Overall, it served 99 million people in that time period.

According to the company’s financial releases, this is in part thanks to the expansion of value-based care arrangements and more patients being served in the home, among other reasons.

“Revenue per consumer grew by 43%, reflecting the impact of accountable arrangements and our expanding home and community health platform, combined with the growing complexity of the needs we are serving,” UnitedHealth CFO John Rex said on the call.

HouseCalls clinicians conducted over 1.1 million home visits in the first half of 2021, more than double the number that it served in 2020 over the same time period.

UnitedHealth’s overall revenue for the quarter was $71.3 billion, a 15% increase year over year.

Besides collaborating with Optum, its other two “themes” for future growth were applying technology to improve patient care and experience as well as strengthening its consumer focus, capabilities and value.

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