Behind the cover: Read Marie's story

Building a modern, high-performing health system

UnitedHealth Group is helping to create a consumer-first health system that delivers high-quality outcomes and better experiences at an affordable cost. We do this by advancing health equity, transitioning to value-based care and empowering health care consumers.

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  • >4M people served under fully accountable value-based care arrangements.
  • 52M people served in commercial and government health benefits programs.
  • >1.5B adjusted prescriptions managed annually.
  • >45M people accessed behavioral health services through our network in 2023.


Advancing health equity

Health equity is a state in which all people are able to live their healthiest lives.

We work with communities, providers and partners to address the barriers that result from the circumstances in which people are born, live, learn, work and age, enabling the health system to work better for everyone. 

Our health equity focus areas:

  • Behavioral and mental health
  • Care access and affordability
  • Care experience and workforce
  • Chronic condition management
  • Mortality and life expectancy
  • Social drivers of health
     
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How we make an impact

In Tennessee, for example,  our Communities of Health program worked with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and community leaders to understand what local communities needed. Together, we set up primary care extension centers to help people with high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.  

New health centers have opened in North and South Memphis offering services at no cost.  These centers have recorded visits for screenings, coaching sessions, and follow ups, with more than half of the patients dealing with obesity and uncontrolled hypertension.  

This program is set to expand to two additional locations in Memphis.  

Committed to growing diversity in health care

Through our Diversity in Health Care Scholarship program — which has committed $100 million over 10 years — we are helping to grow a culturally competent health workforce that can help provide high-quality care for everyone.

Meet Andres

Andres Ramos' connection to his Native American heritage shaped his life from a young age. He grew up on a reservation for part of his childhood, accessing medical care through the Indian Health Service, where he saw the positive impact of culturally competent care firsthand.

Andres initially considered a career in pharmacy, but switched paths, seeking more patient interaction. After completing his undergraduate degree at Northern Arizona University, he worked as a medical scribe at an orthopedic clinic close to a Navajo reservation where he saw how orthopedic interventions could improve patients' quality of life. 

With support from the United Health Foundation Diversity in Health Care Scholarship program, Andres is now pursuing a medical degree at the University of California, Davis. Ultimately, he hopes to serve Native American communities as an orthopedic surgeon. 

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"People feel more at ease when someone on the care team comes from a similar background."


- Andres Ramos

 


Helping people live healthier lives

We are advancing value-based care to help build a health system that is simpler, more connected and able to deliver higher-quality outcomes at a lower cost. 

How a fishing trip saved a life

Watch Dr. Huynh’s story
Every day, Dr. Bruce Huynh, an internist geriatrician at the Everett Clinic in Washington state, helps to ensure his patients receive the care they need via a value-based model focusing on prevention and reducing gaps in care. In getting to know his patients, Dr. Huynh says he shares his life with his patients, just as they share their lives with him. Hear how a fishing trip led to an early cancer discovery by Dr. Huynh for one of his patients, allowing for early treatment.

 

Caring for people in their homes

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Clinical visits

Delivered in the home and designed to identify and address medical care needs and social drivers of health.

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Care transitions 

Coordinating care for patients, their families and care providers as people move between the home and other care settings.

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Complex care

Individualized support for people with the most complex needs and multiple chronic conditions who often lack the economic resources and family support to help coordinate between multiple sites of care.

Our home-based medical care model is designed to serve patients with complex care needs across the care continuum, starting with preventive care and continuing through episodic, chronic, highly complex and palliative care.

  • > 2.7M HouseCalls visits completed in 2023.
  • 21% lower readmissions in the Optum Transitions of Care program compared to control groups.


Helping the health system work better for everyone

We empower consumers by delivering simpler health care experiences that cost less and provide easier access to care. We are committed to fundamentally changing the way people engage with the health system.

Helping people manage diabetes

Watch Brent's story
Brent is one of the more than 75,000 adults with diabetes who benefited from a $2.5 million grant partnership between the United Health Foundation and the Texas Association of Community Health Centers. The partnership focused on reducing the number of Texans living with poorly controlled diabetes. By focusing on staff training and healthy eating, including matching dietary changes to people’s culture, participating health centers achieved a more than three times greater improvement in A1c scores compared to other Texas health centers.


Simpler, consumer-focused benefits

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Surest, one of our fastest-growing commercial health plans, features no deductibles and zero coinsurance. Instead, consumers can clearly and easily compare care providers and facilities — in advance of scheduling treatments — based on quality and value through a user-friendly digital experience.

Surest helps enrollees get the care they need when they need it.

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  • 54% lower out-of-pocket costs for Surest members compared to those of similar individuals in traditional health plans (based on a study conducted in 2022).
  • 37 states offering Surest fully insured plans.
  • 49 states where employers with self-funded plans can offer Surest to employees.

Health care payments made simpler

Our integrated benefits card simplifies care for older adults by linking their health plan, pharmacy benefits, rewards and gym memberships to a single ID card. Consumers can easily pay for items covered by their health benefits, including groceries, over-the-counter medications and even utility bills without using cash or saving a receipt.

 

  • 100M

     transactions by Medicare Advantage UCard users in 2023.


 

Next up

Healthy Environment

A healthy society depends on a healthy environment.

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Download our full report for more on our actions, achievements and progress.
Download our 2023 Sustainability Report
Or download report chapters