University Hospitals (UH) and UnitedHealthcare have announced a
collaboration to provide coordinated health care that improves quality
and reduces costs for Northern Ohio residents enrolled in
UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health plans.
The new accountable care organization (ACO) model, which will launch
Feb. 1, will help shift the Ohio health care system from one based on
volume of care to one that rewards quality and value. Under the
collaboration, University Hospitals and its affiliated physicians will
manage all aspects of patients’ care, providing the right care in the
right place at the right time. This will be University Hospitals’ fifth
ACO program and UnitedHealthcare’s second in Ohio.
“University Hospitals is pleased to join with UnitedHealthcare on an ACO
that will enhance health services and improve coordination of care for
patients,” said Eric Bieber, M.D., University Hospitals’ chief medical
officer and president of its Accountable Care Organization. “We have had
great success in improving wellness and managing costs for the more than
170,000 people in our current ACOs and look forward to expanding to
include participants in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health
plans.”
“University Hospitals is a national leader in accountable care, and its
experience with ACOs that coordinate quality care is rooted in knowing
what’s best for each patient’s health care needs,” said Robert
Falkenberg, president & CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Ohio. “Our ACO
partnership will enhance the quality and efficiency of care in this
community through improved delivery of health care services.”
The new ACO collaboration will help University Hospitals’ primary care
physicians, hospitals and home health care providers improve transitions
of care for patients and facilitate better communication with all those
involved in a patient’s treatment. Primary care physicians in the ACO
will receive regular updates on their patients, enabling them to monitor
all of the care each patient is receiving, and to maintain all clinical
information about each patient in a secure patient registry. Nearly
19,000 UnitedHealthcare plan participants who currently receive care
from University Hospitals care providers will not have to do anything
differently to receive ACO benefits, which include enhanced care
coordination and follow-up.
With 170,000 individual patients, University Hospitals’ pediatric,
employee and Medicare ACOs represent one of the largest ACO initiatives
in the United States, fostering long-term patient-care provider
relationships that help promote preventive care, increase wellness and
healthy behaviors, decrease emergency episodes and prevent
hospitalizations. University Hospitals’ ACO models coordinate patient
care in a manner that increases the quality of care received, promotes
health and wellness, improves the patient experience and reduces overall
health care costs.
UnitedHealthcare, which serves more than 1.7 million Ohioans with a care
provider network of more than 200 hospitals and 30,400 physicians
statewide, is working with thousands of physician groups, hospitals,
medical centers and other health care providers nationwide to place
greater emphasis on rewarding care providers for better care, better
health and lower costs.
“UnitedHealthcare seeks to improve the quality and efficiency of health
care in line with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s ‘Triple
Aim’ – better care and better health at lower cost,” said Falkenberg.
“This collaboration with University Hospitals continues to build on our
longstanding commitment to help people in Ohio live healthier lives.”
This is UnitedHealthcare’s 15th accountable care collaboration in the
United States. More than $27 billion of UnitedHealthcare’s annual
physician and hospital reimbursements are tied to accountable care
programs, centers of excellence and other performance-based programs.
The company recently announced it expects to grow its industry-leading
accountable care contracts to $65 billion by 2018. For more information
about UnitedHealthcare’s accountable care initiatives, visit www.AccountableCareAnswers.com.
About University Hospitals
University
Hospitals, the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio, serves the
needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient
centers and primary care physicians in 16 counties. At the core of our
health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center, one of only
18 hospitals in the country to have been named to U.S. News & World
Report’s most exclusive rankings list: the Best Hospitals 2013-14 Honor
Roll. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of
Medicine, UH Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious
clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world,
including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopaedics and spine,
radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience,
cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human
genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH
Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children’s
hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only
hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the
NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve
University. UH Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American
Hospital Association – McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its
leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. For more
information, go to www.uhhospitals.org
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare
is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by
simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and
wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care
providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit
programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid
beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 780,000 physicians and other
health care professionals and 5,900 hospitals and other care facilities
nationwide. UnitedHealthcare serves more than 40 million people in
health benefits and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group
(NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.
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Copyright Business Wire 2013