1. Optum sold its workers’ compensation settlement solutions business to ExamWorks Compliance Solutions. The settlement solutions segment was housed within Optum’s workers’ compensation and auto no-fault business segment.
2. Optum announced it is shuttering its telehealth business, Optum Virtual Care. Launched in 2019, it offers virtual access to providers at any time.
3. “Virtual care has been and will continue to be a core part of our comprehensive, integrated care delivery model designed to provide care to people where, when and how they prefer,” an Optum spokesperson told Becker’s. “We continually review the capabilities and services we offer to meet the growing and evolving needs of our businesses and the people we serve. As always, we will support affected team members with job placement resources and seek to deploy them where possible to any open roles within the company.”
4. Optum also announced plans to close a Change Healthcare facility in Toledo, Ohio, laying off 129 employees in the process. The layoffs, affecting employees in Ohio or working remotely, will occur in three waves from July 15 to Sept. 6. Optum also conducted layoffs in August — around 67 employees from the Everett Clinic and the Polyclinic in Seattle, and Optum-owned, Morgantown, W.Va.-based MedExpress Urgent Care eliminated registered nursing positions at 150 facilities.
5. Optum is still seeing rapid growth, particularly in physician employment. Optum added nearly 20,000 physicians in 2023, bringing its total to 90,000 affiliated physicians.
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