We’ve said it before: One man’s pandemic is another man’s windfall. Especially when that “man” is UnitedHealth Group, which appears to be taking the profits it’s piled up during the COVID-19 pandemic to buy up more real estate in the healthcare industry marketplace.
In addition to its health insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group runs a business called Optum, which includes a large network of clinics, surgery centers, urgent care facilities, IT and healthcare consulting businesses, and much more. Through Optum, UnitedHealth is entering seemingly every aspect of the industry. And so, in the wake of Optum’s recent $13B purchase of data analytics and health technology company Change Healthcare, let’s check out a few of the numbers inspired by Becker’s story, which underscore the extent of Optum’s presence:
• 80%: Health plans in America have an existing business relationship with
Optum
• 90%: American hospitals use its OptumInsights service
• $65 billion: Annual amount managed by its Optum 360 division
• 1,450: Number of neighborhood clinics tied to Optum Care, including upwards of 53,000 physicians (with plans to add 10,000 more in 2021)
• $10.5 billion: OptumHealth Q3 2020 revenue reported (an increase of 29% over Q3 2019)
These numbers are just the beginning. Google “Optum expands” and you’ll get dozens of results showing its sprawl, from rehab clinics to a hospital chain in Abu Dhabi.
