United Healthcare Group is the single largest health delivery service in the country offering insurance services to the bulk of the American population. The company is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota in the United States (Sandy et al., 2013). The company has received high ratings from Power and Associates and the Business Insurance magazine as far as employee satisfaction and best health plan provisions are concerned. United Healthcare for providing insurance services that fall into four categories namely united healthcare employer and individual which are healthcare programs that are not in any way connected to government entities (Sandy et al., 2013). United Healthcare Medicare and retirement are services that are focused on group retirees and Medicaid recipients. The United Healthcare community and state program place its focus on regional assistance programs and Medicaid recipients (Sandy et al., 2013). Finally, the United Healthcare military and veterans service are centered on health programs that are administered on a tri-care contract (Sandy et al., 2013).
There have been proactive plans that have been focused on addressing the healthcare needs of the American citizenry. The current projection propose that an average of between 200 million US dollars and 600 million dollars in medical care costs is likely to be saved in the ten years if at all reforms in the care provision are effected (United Healthcare Group, 2012). As such, there is the need to move away from the traditional fee-for-service model of healthcare provision as a form of payment for medical costs such plans have been proposed by the United Healthcare organization which has been on the forefront in addressing the healthcare disparities amongst the citizenry (United Healthcare Group, 2012). The key benefits that are likely to result from the implementation of the United Healthcare programs include; the potential of slowing down the spending on healthcare in the USA thereby improving the sustainability of Medicaid and Medicare (United Healthcare Group, 2012). The estimated cuts on the costs are likely to range from 70 billion US dollars to 1.01 trillion US dollars (United Healthcare Group, 2012). There are also chances of health care affordability and quality to improve from an 18% cut in the cost involved in the healthcare cost (United Healthcare Group, 2012). These two benefits are likely to be the biggest breakthrough in addressing the healthcare needs of the American citizenry in the next decade.
United Healthcare strategic plan pertaining network growth
The united healthcare is at the forefront in trying to expand its operations in coming years so as to improve the base under which it operates. This is in line with the objective of boosting its network’s growth. As such, the contracts which the organization holds are likely to improve from 20 billion US dollars up to 50 billion US dollars (Hartford Business Journal, 2016). This objective is expected to be implemented in the next five years. Such moves are associated with cost-efficiency measures and the reimbursement of quality in order to boost the levels of service delivery (Hartford Business Journal, 2016). Currently, the contractual obligations that the organization has are with more than 575 health care settings, 1,100 medical groups in addition to 75,000 healthcare providers (Hartford Business Journal, 2016). Such efforts are aimed at lowering the costs that are involved in healthcare provision and integrating value-based payment networks with clinical strategies. This move by the United Healthcare is targeted at having integration between care providers and the abilities that they have in the payment for the financial risks that are involved therein (Hartford Business Journal, 2016).
Strategic plans for addressing nurse staffing
United Healthcare identifies the need for investing in quality health care providers rather than just dwelling on customer service representatives (Covington, 2013). Such efforts are directed at keeping the activities of the insurance provider to continue running smoothly. As such, United Healthcare has put in place plans that will make it easy to absorb 125 more healthcare providers of which the bulk will be registered nurses and nurse practitioners (Covington, 2013). The hired healthcare practitioners will be tasked with making house to house calls for united healthcare customers who are covered by the insurance program. The care provided by these practitioners will be focused on addressing patients who have got chronic illnesses which are expensive and as such cannot be paid for in a direct kind of arrangement (Covington, 2013). Such chronic illnesses are diabetes and/or congestive heart failure. Such an investment by the united healthcare is targeted at improving the health of patients by the application of cost-effective care which is of high quality (Covington, 2013). The program is also targeted at reducing the fee-for-service payment method which is usually expensive in the long run.
Resource management
United Healthcare has also made it its mandate to ensure that the resources that it boasts of have been managed well with an effort to ensure that they are utilized effectively to avoid any wastages and unnecessary overhead costs (United Healthcare Group, 2012). The key resources that United Healthcare is dependent on include; pharmaceutical products, personnel, information, networks and medical innovations. As such, there is the need to have teamwork and conviction which will be vital in building up relationships that will be targeted at maintaining the goodwill of the organization (United Healthcare Group, 2012). The organization also puts a lot of focus in science and constant innovations with the aims of coming up with new medical supplies that will play a key role in solving the healthcare needs of the clientele(United Healthcare Group, 2012). Additionally, the organization invests in researches and evidence based practices which are targeted at coming with new information sources that are crucial for making informed health care decisions using the most current information about health care provision (United Healthcare Group, 2012).
United healthcare plans on improving patient satisfaction
All the 11 million plus individual that have taken an insurance cover with United Healthcare have been responding positively from the services that they have been receiving from the organization (United Healthcare Group, 2015). The satisfaction derived by the clientele in this situation is due to the fact that the quality of care is at an all-time high while the cost of care has been on the decline. United Healthcare has got plans to collaborate with more physicians and care providers to continue providing excellent services to the clientele (United Healthcare Group, 2015). As such, this realization will lead to improved value-based healthcare which is focused on improving the services that care providers give to the patients subscribed to the insurance plan. All these events are targeted at increasing the levels of patient satisfaction in the program (United Healthcare Group, 2015). The idea of having a collaborative working relationship between care providers and the organization is aimed at having the right support coupled with improved compensation which will be vital in helping physicians providing high-quality care which will ultimately translate to improved patient satisfaction levels (United Healthcare Group, 2015). Such efforts have seen a major reduction in the level of patient admissions and readmissions.
Conclusively, United Healthcare can be seen to be a leader in the process of ensuring that the healthcare needs of the United States population are addressed in future times. This objective will most definitely be achieved since the organization has put a lot of emphasis on matters pertaining to network growth, staffing, resource management and patient satisfaction which will be beneficial to the citizenry of the country.
References
Covington O. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2013/02/22/unitedhealthcare-investing-in.html
Hartford Business Journal. (2016). UnitedHealthCare predicts 150% growth in accountable care | HartfordBusiness.com. Retrieved from http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20130710/NEWS01/130719997/unitedhealthcare-predicts-150%89-growth-in-accountable-care
Sandy, L. G., Tuckson, R. V., & Stevens, S. L. (2013). UnitedHealthcare experience illustrates how payers can enable patient engagement. Health Affairs, 32(8), 1440-1445.
United Healthcare Group. (2012). UnitedHealth Group - Health Care Payment Reform Could Save U.S. $200 Billion-$600 Billion over Coming Decade, but Implementation Challenges are Substantial. Retrieved from http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/newsroom/articles/news/unitedhealth%20group/2012/1205paymentreform.aspx
United Healthcare Group. (2015). Health Care Services Based on Quality and Patient Outcomes | UnitedHealthcare. Retrieved from http://www.uhc.com/news-room/2015-news-release-archive/health-care-services-based-on-quality
