Trend of Digital Initiatives Around Value-Based Care Pushes Revenue Higher for UnitedHealth

Effects of digital modernization across the healthcare spectrum from diagnostics to data, from treatments and payments, are having transformative impacts, as seen in new sector financials.

Expansion of digital healthcare and pharmacy services from its Optum Health business helped elevate UnitedHealth Group earnings, whose full year 2021 revenues came in $30.5 billion higher at $287.6 billion, an 11.8% year-over-year increase credited in large measure to digital initiatives, as reported on Wednesday (Jan. 19).

United is the first major health insurer to report Q4 and full-year 2021 earnings. What can be expected from others is more of the digital drill-down that marks the pandemic era.

Sounding confident about 2022, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty told analysts and reporters that “we see an even greater demand for integration to bring together the fragmented pieces of the health system, to harness the tremendous innovation occurring in the marketplace, to help better align the incentives for providers, payers, and consumers, and to organize the system around value.”

Witty said digital particularly is remaking a “healthcare system that is more connected, more informal, more human and more responsive to every person’s unique needs.”

Focusing on the Optum performance, Q4 2021 revenues rose just over 14% to $41.1 billion, bringing full year 2021 revenues to $155.6 billion, up nearly $20 billion year-over-year.

Notable in Optum’s contribution is that while 2 million more people used the service in 2021, serving a total of 100 million compared to 98 million in 2020, “Revenue per consumer served for the full year increased 33% driven by further expansion of people served in value-based care arrangements and the continued build-out of care delivery capabilities, including in-home physical and digital offerings complementing its growing clinic-based and outpatient services.”

Value-based care models that reward providers for better outcomes and lower costs is a trend weaving its way through healthcare markets in COVID’s wake, enabled by new technology.

For example, regarding health tech, Witty told analysts that “our major partnerships across the country help health systems improve their performance and returns, all to better support their missions. We’re energized by the potential to bring these comprehensive tailored solutions to a greater number of system partners in 2022 and beyond.”

He added that 2022 will also see UnitedHealth focus more on “vastly improving the health payment sector, streamlining and simplifying payments for providers, payers, and consumers while reducing friction and increasing speed and convenience.”

Per UnitedHealth’s Q4 2021 financials, data and analytics arm Optum Insight saw revenue backlog increase by $2.2 billion to $22.4 billion “driven by growth in comprehensive managed services. Significant new health system partnerships in 2021 and the breadth of services offered by Optum Insight continued to advance in areas such as payment integrity, digital modernization and care coordination.”

Additionally, United Health said its OptumRx pharmacy benefits management unit “continued to advance the scope of its pharmacy care services offerings during 2021, with further expansion in community-based behavioral pharmacies and across e-commerce, infusion and specialty pharmacy services. OptumRx fulfilled 1.37 billion adjusted scripts in 2021, growth of 58 million or 4.4% over the prior year, through new and existing client relationships.”

Putting OptumRx’s results in context, Witty said, “we can better use the significant breadth, volume and value of our foundational pharmacy services and data capabilities and integrate our medical pharmacy and behavioral capabilities. All of this to provide whole person care, support the discovery of new drugs and treatments and support value-based models of care.”

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