Optum, UnitedHealth's IT subsidiary, launched The Optum Institute for Sustainable Health on Tuesday, which aims to provide analysis and insight for a changing healthcare landscape. It also announced the results of a new survey, "Sustainable Health Communities – A Manifesto for Improvement."
The Optum Institute will initiate and support community-based forums, executive education programs and public policy debates, working closely with hospitals, clinicians, employers, government and community leaders.
[See also: OptumHealth acquires Connextions]
Officials plan to form partnerships with organizations and associations that share The Optum Institute's mission – to help the healthcare system work better and improve healthcare delivery in the United States. These programs will help organizations screate Sustainable Health Communities – clinically integrated, financially viable health systems that increase the quality of care, improve patient experience and lower overall healthcare costs.
[See also: OptumHealth acquires Connextions.]
The Optum Institute will draw on expertise from healthcare leaders, medical experts and government analysts from the Optum businesses – OptumHealth, OptumInsight and OptumRx – who today touch more than 6,000 hospital clients, nearly 250,000 healthcare professionals/groups, officials say.
[See also: OptumInsight, RemitDATA team to help docs improve billing ]
"There is wide national agreement that the U.S. healthcare system – despite its many strengths – can and must do better to improve the health of the nation and enhance the quality and affordability of care," said Simon Stevens, the Optum Institute's chairman. "The Optum Institute's mission is to help make sense of the complex changes that will be required to do this, and to help partner with local communities as they modernize their own healthcare systems."
Seven ways to improve care
In its first research study, the Optum Institute has published new findings drawing on a major new national opinion survey conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive on quality of care, accountable care and what it will take to move to high-performing local healthcare communities.
"Sustainable Health Communities -- A Manifesto for Improvement polled 3.400 physicians, hospitals and U.S. adults, finding seven areas of opportunity for making the American healthcare system work better. Key findings include:
Challenges
- Access. U.S. adults believe that patients always or often receive needed preventive healthcare only a third (33 percent) of the time; doctors think this is true only half (50 percent) of the time.
- Quality. Nearly two thirds of physicians (64 percent) say that there are "significant differences in the quality of care provided by doctors" in their local area.
- Cost. U.S. adults believe that healthcare costs in their community could be cut by between a quarter and a third (29 percent) – without having a negative impact on quality. Looking to the future, only a quarter of physicians (26 percent), around a third of U.S. adults (38 percent) and half of hospitals (50 percent) believe that – absent new action – their local health community is on course to becoming more sustainable.
Opportunities
- Care coordination. U.S. adults, doctors and hospitals do not feel that the healthcare delivered in their community is coordinated. 16 percent, 9 percent, and 16 percent, respectively, describe it as extremely or very coordinated.
- Technology. 90 percent of physicians say they expect to be using electronic medical record (EMR) systems within two-three years – up from 55 percent today. But fewer than half (47 percent) of those EMRs allow doctors to share their patients' medical records electronically with hospitals. And only a third (35 percent) of physicians report having a computerized system in place to track patients with chronic conditions and ensure appropriate monitoring and follow-up care.
- Incentives. Over the coming decade, a third (35 percent) of doctors expect that between 10 percent and 25 percent of provider reimbursement will be tied to performance, and a further fifth (22 percent) of doctors think that the proportion at risk will be in excess of a quarter of reimbursement. Half (49 percent) of physicians say they currently feel "not at all prepared" to accept greater financial risk for managing patient care. Hospitals similarly expect a major move to performance-based reimbursement, with 40 percent of hospital respondents expecting that more than a quarter of revenues will be at risk for the quality and/or efficiency of care delivery.
- Transparency. Nearly two thirds of doctors (64 percent) report knowing that there is significant variation in the quality of local patient care, while less than half (47 percent) of U.S. adults are aware that such variations exist. Additionally, less than half (46 percent) of physicians report having EMR system that can provide patients with easy access to their medical records.
[See also: OptumInsight, RemitDATA team to help docs improve billing .]
Carol Simon, director of the Optum Institute, said these findings "clearly indicate that much more needs to be done to engage patients in their own health, as well as the need to better integrate care through shared information, aligned incentives, and supporting infrastructures."
Going forward, she said, "our research and analysis will aim to provide important insights into the critical unanswered questions all healthcare stakeholders will need to address in order to build more sustainable healthcare systems."