OptumHealth, One of the Largest Employer of MDs, Pursues Telemedicine

For readers ofLab Soft News that may be unaware of this,OptumHealth, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, is the one of the largest employers of physicians in the U.S. (see:With 8k more physicians than Kaiser, Optum is'scaring the crap out of hospitals'; UnitedHealth Group Soon to Be Largest Employer of Doctors in the US). Here's a quote from this first article:Since its acquisition of 250 Las Vegas-area physicians in 2008, UnitedHealth Group has steadily expanded its physician workforce to shield itself from competitors and hospitals....To date, the health insurance giant's physician arm, OptumCare, employs or is affiliated with about 30,000 physicians. If OptumCare completes its acquisition ofDavita Medical Group, the insurer will tack on another 17,000 physicians to its ranks — making it one of the largest physician employers in America. Hospitals are gobbling up physicians, too. A recent Avalere Health study found that by mid-2016, hospitals employed 42 percent of U.S. physicians. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has roughly 37,000 physicians....Still, Optum outpaces Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's roughly 22,000 physicians by 8,000.I have been covering the growth of telemedicine, also known as virtual care, for almost eight years (see:Telemedicine Transforms Intensive Care Units in Smaller Hospitals with Remote Monitoring). I believe that it is a solution for many of the problems plaguing healthcare care in the U.S. including a r...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Telemedicine Source Type: blogs