The contracts pay a flat fee to physician practices for managing patient care. The practices receive payment upfront instead of billing at the time of care. Two million of the 20 million patients in OptumCare’s network are currently included in the fixed payment plans, and the company aims to add 250,000 more by the end of the year.
“We’re paid to keep people healthy and well, which is what most people want,” OptumHealth CEO Wyatt Decker, MD, told Insider. “When you begin to pencil out the math, as we move people into value-based arrangements, that will be a major driver of how we’ll move to a $100 billion book of business.”
OptumCare has 56,000 physicians in its network and aims to add at least 4,000 more this year. The flat-fee payments aim to support physicians who keep patients out of expensive sites of care, such as hospitals and emergency rooms. Dr. Decker said OptumCare physicians referring patients to network ASCs cuts costs in half as compared to referring patients for surgery at the hospital.
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