DeKalb Physician Hospital Organization (DPHO) and UnitedHealthcare have launched an accountable care program to improve people's health and their satisfaction with their health care experience.
The new accountable care program will dedicate more resources to care coordination and make it easier to share important health information. DPHO member hospitals and physicians will share in the resulting savings generated through providing care under a value-based, patient-centric care model focused on keeping people healthy.
More than 250,000 people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare's employer-sponsored health plans are eligible to benefit from this collaboration.
Many people who have gone to the doctor or hospital – particularly those with complex or chronic illnesses – have found they often have to connect information from each of their doctor's visits themselves, and have sometimes received duplicative tests or care that isn't coordinated.
Through this collaboration, UnitedHealthcare and DPHO will work together to better coordinate patients' care, using shared technology, timely data and information about emergency room visits and hospital admissions. This partnership will also provide services to help patients manage their chronic health conditions by enhancing relationships with their personal physicians and encouraging healthy lifestyles.
"Our multispecialty physician leadership and population health analytics have given network practices the ability to increase quality and efficiency while reducing redundancy and health care costs," said DPHO Board Chairman Dr. Albert Wildstein. "We are enhancing care coordination across care settings, and our partnership with UnitedHealthcare enables the network to provide improved care to more patients in our community."
"UnitedHealthcare and DPHO are working together to help people receive more personalized and better connected care, which will significantly enhance people's ability to live healthier lives," said Garland Scott, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Georgia.
UnitedHealthcare will supplement DPHO's own data to help support overall population health, giving the entire care team clear, actionable data about individual patients' health needs, potential gaps in care and proactive identification of high-risk patients. Patient navigators may also be used to support community-based care coordination, such as helping with planning after a patient is discharged from the hospital and scheduling follow-up appointments.
UnitedHealthcare serves more than 1.2 million Georgians with network of 168 hospitals and nearly 25,000 physicians and other care providers statewide.
More than 14 million people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare plans across the country have access to accountable care programs, delivered in part through more than 750 accountable care arrangements nationwide as the organization engages in deeper, more collaborative relationships with physicians and hospitals.
Care providers nationwide are showing strong interest in a shift to value-based care. UnitedHealthcare's total payments to physicians and hospitals that are tied to value-based arrangements have tripled in the last three years to more than $48 billion. By the end of 2018, UnitedHealthcare expects that figure to reach $65 billion.
For more information about UnitedHealthcare's full spectrum of value-based initiatives, visit www.UHC.com/valuebasedcare.
About DeKalb Physician Hospital Organization
DeKalb Physician Hospital Organization (DPHO) was incorporated in 1994 as a nonprofit organization to improve the quality and availability of health care services to the community served by DeKalb Medical Center, in Decatur, Georgia and its affiliated physicians and their practices. Today, DPHO continues to carry out that mission by operating as a clinically integrated network of over 500 physicians and the 3 hospitals of DeKalb Medical (DeKalb Medical at North Decatur, DeKalb Medical at Hillandale, and DeKalb Medical at Downtown Decatur) whose primary goal is to work collaboratively to provide coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective patient care with improved outcomes.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.
Share This Story