Optum's "Game Changer" Virtual Care with 34,000,000+ visits a Year is... Over?
34,000,000 visits to...zero?
Fierce Healthcare (which may want to consider a “Fiercely Ironic Healthcare” Rebrand) Reported the following in 2022:
Here's why UnitedHealth Group's CMO says virtual care is a 'game changer' to reach underserved populations
UnitedHealth Group reports that telehealth visits among UnitedHealthcare members grew from 1.2 million in 2019 to almost 34 million in 2020. Among Optum patients, telehealth visits grew from 1,000 in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2020.
"As far back as I can remember, this is probably one of the most dramatic changes in the practice of medicine, definitely over a generation," said Margaret-Mary Wilson, M.D., UnitedHealth Group's chief medical officer, during a recent media briefing.
34 Million visits is a lot of visits. However, according to Optum insiders sharing information with The Frontier Psychiatrists, comments on TikTok, and The Layoff.com, the Optum Virtual Care team is being shut down.
Keep in mind, these are as of yet unconfirmed reports, but it seems like a pretty remarkable about-face for a company with a scale it’s hard to imagine:
Before leaning out of Telehealth entirely, they were leaving in:
UnitedHealth Group data show that telehealth growth has slowed in the past year. "But there is increased stickiness, and many of those new telehealth users are now repeat telehealth users," Wilson said. [emphasis mine]
At the end of 2020, half of UnitedHealthcare members leveraging telehealth visits were repeat users, she said. Through July 2021, virtual care visits among health plan members totaled 18 million, representing 2,700% growth compared to the same time frame pre-pandemic.
"We are leaning into telehealth to be a connection point by fostering connectedness between the patient and healthcare provider team," Wilson said.
Except now they are, per unconfirmed reports, not.
An insider described the experience thusly:
“… it makes no sense. Full schedules every day hopping urgent care queue….WHY?”
The source continued:
“When I first started working for Optum, I made a point of joining the “Taun halls“ and the “fireside chat“
But the first time I heard that man speak, I got chills down my spine, and I never joined another one of those meetings”
One might be tempted to ask: “Where are all the physical locations and physical in-person care doctors and nurses that can address 34 million extra visits a year?”
At 15 min per visit, it would take me 969.676198 years to catch up with that backlog. On the upside, I will eventually be dead and so will all those patients. So, the problem will solve itself, in a way.
We will, I suppose, have to wait and see. I’m sure they have something that will generate significant shareholder value planned.
Maybe the way they are “changing the game” is to…break the wheel and end the game.
Another great report, Owen! Telehealth, as we know it, is evolving. Exciting times ahead.
1. 34 million telehealth visits at UnitedHealth seem far-fetched, even for a COVID year. Do you have the original UnitedHealth source?
2. We're moving to a place where telehealth is conducted through a platform that is most convenient for the doctor—i.e., either their EHR system or Doximity (which is dubbed "LinkedIn for medical professionals"). Standalone telehealth with a random doctor, such as Teladoc and Amwell, are dead, but even UnitedHealth/Optum virtual care seems to be winding down.
Partly for that reason, UnitedHealth started building its own EHR system called Rally 5 years ago. However, it turned out to be hard, and they abandoned the project.
UnitedHealth wishes it could just buy an EHR system and be done with it. But currently, their hands are tied, being under the microscope of the government for that exact reason—too much power!