Optum Announces Strategic Baby Shark Program

The triumph of nature is terrifying and strategic.

I remember the first time I went swimming in the ocean and thought that I saw a shark. I was eight years old. It was blue lagoon in the Caribbean. The fin of a fast-moving fish made my heart jump into my throat. It wasn't a shark. It was a tarpin. The ocean is full of some very large creatures. In our day-to-day lives on land, it's rare that we encounter something that makes us feel so small. Sharks have few analogues on land. Or do they?

Today, I was shocked to learn that UnitedHealthcare was not content with acquiring all of the healthcare information technology in Change Healthcare. Or with being the employer of the most physicians in the country, with 70,000+ physicians in its Optum subdivision. It has made a startling new acquisition. This time, it's terrifying in an immediate and obvious way. What was not obvious? When a public company is at the scale of UnitedHealthcare, they didn't have to announce this strategic acquisition. Since their acquisitions are not relev…