UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Offering insurance services under UnitedHealthcare and healthcare products under Optum, it is the world’s eleventh-largest company by revenue and the largest healthcare company by revenue, and the largest insurance company by net premiums. Optum and UnitedHealthcare had roughly equal earnings from operations in 2022.
The company is ranked 10th on the 2023 Fortune Global 500. UnitedHealth Group had a market capitalization of $477.4 billion as of August 7, 2023.
The pharmacy is the most used touchpoint in health care. For the most vulnerable populations, especially those in rural and underserved communities, community and independent pharmacies are a vital part of providing patients with access to the care they need. These pharmacies – and the pharmacists who have built trusted relationships with their patients – serve as a critical touch point on the front lines of care to drive better health outcomes and identify unmet medical and social needs.
To support their efforts, Optum Rx is launching initiatives that will support pharmacists in connecting their patients to services that address basic needs such as food, nutrition, transportation, housing, and baby supplies.
The initiatives will focus in three critical areas:
Launching in select states starting in June, the programs will be offered nationwide to all pharmacies later this year. Participating pharmacies will receive appropriate reimbursement for supporting patients in accessing medically necessary services that improve their health outcomes.
These programs kick off Optum Rx’s broader, industry-leading commitment to bridge resource gaps in the community, including strategies to care for underserved and rural populations and supporting community and independent pharmacies with solutions that simplify processes, promote payment predictability, enhanced reporting, and offer appropriate compensation for services that improve health outcomes.
Many people lack access to necessities such as housing, transportation, and food, and Optum Rx is partnering with pharmacies to help address the needs of their patient population. The program, launching June 1, will support community pharmacies serving Optum Rx members in underserved and rural communities by helping them connect members to the Unite Us site, a nationwide technology platform that identifies social care needs to connect people with community services and resources at a local level.
The program will initially launch in North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Texas, and Louisiana, and will focus on people with diabetes and pregnant women. In the Fall of 2023, these programs will roll out nationally.
New offerings build on our history of bringing innovation to employers, unions, health plans and consumers to help improve affordability and transparency in pharmacy benefits.
Optum Rx is working to empower consumer and provider choice and make prescription drugs more affordable. Each of our customers is unique and we believe they are best positioned to determine the affordability and transparency solutions that meet their pharmacy benefit needs.
In January, Optum Rx began offering expanded payment options that enable choice and drive transparency and affordability in pharmacy benefits to the employer, union and health plan customers we serve. In addition to traditional and pass-through payment solutions we offer today, we now offer additional solutions including:
These models continue to align incentives across the supply chain, while providing even greater transparency, choice and customizable pharmacy benefit solutions and maintaining our continued drive for lowest net cost for clients. Clients who choose the new models will also receive member care, formulary design and consultation and additional client support services for an administrative fee.
Optum Rx continues to promote choice and competition to make prescription drugs more affordable. We were first in market to announce a plan to cover biosimilars for Humira, which gives patients and their doctors the ability to make decisions based on each individual’s needs, while ensuring access to a broader set of effective therapies and lowering costs to payers.
We also offer greater choice in pharmacy benefit services for clients and clearer benefit navigation and support tools. Earlier this year, we launched Price Edge, a consumer solution that identifies the best available price for prescription drugs. Price Edge seamlessly and in real time compares available direct-to-consumer pricing for traditional generic drugs with insurance pricing to ensure Optum Rx members always get the lowest available prescription drug price – on or off benefit and applied to their deductible. Just over 1 million members have enrolled since the January launch, resulting in more than $4 million in savings on their medications.
UnitedHealth Group, Optum and UnitedHealthcare team members are working to advance our mission to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone by focusing on five strategic growth priorities.