More than 11 million patients insured by UnitedHealthcare are receiving care that is being compensated on a value-based scale, rather than traditional fee-for-service, the insurer said Tuesday, the latest metric to show how payment is changing in the U.S. health industry.
The Minnesota-based insurer, which already contracts with 520 accountable care programs, said it expects to partner with up to 250 new ACOs this year.
The aggressive plan follows a January announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that it plans to see 50 percent of Medicare reimbursements tied to value-based ACOs by 2018.
[Also: HHS ups timeline for value-based care]
In fee-for-service, doctors are reimbursed a set, negotiated amount for a medical procedure. But reforms have pushed much of the industry to embrace value-based reimbursements, which pay based on patient outcomes measured by quality benchmarks. Payments can range from bundled payments and bonuses to comprehensive population health, which lumps performance metrics for an entire health system to determine payments.
[Also: Complete liste of Medicare ACOs]
Publicly traded UnitedHealthcare said it has paid nearly $36 billion to physicians in value-based arrangements in the past three years, and it expects that amount to hit $65 billion by 2018.
The insurer, which contracts with more than 6,000 hospitals and has a market capitalization of more than $104 billion, said it has seen drops in readmissions and hospital stays among the ACOs it partners with.
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