BATON ROUGE – Health Leaders Network and UnitedHealthcare (UHC) have launched an accountable care program to improve people’s health and their satisfaction with their health care experience.
The new accountable care program will dedicate more resources to care coordination and make it easier to share important health information, UHC reps said. Health Leaders Network member hospitals and physicians will share in the resulting savings generated through providing care under a value-based, patient-centric care model focused on keeping people healthy.
More than 400,000 people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health plans are eligible to benefit from this collaboration.
Many people who have gone to the doctor or hospital – particularly those with complex or chronic illnesses – have found they often have to connect information from each of their doctor’s visits themselves, and have sometimes received duplicative tests or care that isn’t coordinated.
Through this collaboration, UnitedHealthcare and Health Leaders Network will work together to better coordinate patients’ care, using shared technology, timely data and information about emergency room visits and hospital admissions, UHC reps said. This partnership will also provide services to help patients manage their chronic health conditions by enhancing relationships with their personal physicians and encouraging healthy lifestyles.
“We are enhancing care coordination across care settings, and our partnership with UnitedHealthcare enables our network to provide improved care to more patients in our community,” said Richard R. Vath, M.D., president of Health Leaders Network and senior vice president of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “Our multispecialty physician leadership and population health analytics have given network practices the ability to increase quality and efficiency while reducing redundancy and health care costs.”
“UnitedHealthcare and Health Leaders Network are working together to help people receive more personalized and better connected care, which will significantly enhance people’s ability to live healthier lives,” said Joseph Ochipinti, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana.
UnitedHealthcare will supplement Health Leaders Network own data to help support overall population health, giving the entire care team clear, actionable data about individual patients’ health needs, potential gaps in care and proactive identification of high-risk patients, UHC reps said. Patient navigators may also be used to support community-based care coordination, such as helping with planning after a patient is discharged from the hospital and scheduling follow-up appointments.
UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana serves nearly 800,000 Louisianans with a network of 175 hospitals and more than 16,000 physicians and other care providers statewide.
More than 14 million people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare plans across the country have access to accountable care programs, delivered in part through more than 750 accountable care arrangements nationwide as the organization engages in deeper, more collaborative relationships with physicians and hospitals, UHC reps said.
Care providers nationwide are showing strong interest in a shift to value-based care. UnitedHealthcare’s total payments to physicians and hospitals that are tied to value-based arrangements have tripled in the last three years to more than $49 billion. By the end of 2018, UnitedHealthcare expects that figure to reach $65 billion, UHC reps said.
