The UnitedHealth Group's Effort to Provide Value-Based Care

The United health group
Name
Institutional affiliation
United Health Group
Introduction
The United health group is an American healthcare company with its headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota. In the US it has been rated sixth in the Fortune 500. It exerts two operating businesses to offer products and services. It uses both Optum and United Healthcare which are both subsidiaries of the company. It is the largest provider of health insurance in the country serving over 70 million people. In 2015 it recorded an operating income of $11 billion. Over the years the company has gradually grown through several mergers done over the years. It has also used other approaches to make sure that it remains on top of the industry. This paper will deliberate on the company and look at some of the strategies it is employing to ensure customer satisfaction and any strategies it may apply to make the future of patients brighter.
Background
Richard Tyagi Burke founded the Charter Med Incorporated in 1974 as a privately owned company. The United HealthCare Corporation was founded in 1977 for the purpose of recognising the company and becoming the mother company to Charter Med. Its primary goal was to execute the physician’s health plan of Minnesota a health management program that had been recently concluded.
The company is dedicated to making sure that the healthcare needs of patients are met, and people are living comfortably free of disease. The company has been evaluating some value-based strategies with the aim of improving care, reducing the cost of medical services, improve the results of treatment and share risk with the role of controlling trends in medical costs. The company views Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as an essential part of its strategy to provide value-based care. The primary goal of the value-based approach is driving the delivery system towards sufficient collaboration among the healthcare community. Collaboration among the healthcare providers would be significant since it would be easy to trace the medical history of an individual. It would also be essential since practitioners would be able to share ideas on issues that are trending in the industry and come up with solutions to these issues (Shomaker, 2011). Currently, the company is already implementing some value-based models, for example, full capitation and performance-based incentives.
The patient affordable act of 2010 contains provisions within which the company can work and ensure that patients are provided with the best quality care in the market. The act was introduced to increase the quality of health insurance while reducing the medical cost for civilians. Among its policies is the expansion of healthcare insurance coverage (Williams, 2016). The company can work within this act to ensure that patients get what their money is worth. Some insurance companies often take advantage of patients and overcharge their patients for services that were not provided. Within this act, the company can be faithful to its customers by not hiking prices. The company should also recognize the need for taking care of the elderly, especially those suffering from chronic diseases. They should be provided with the continuum of care as opposed to pri...