Accountable care collaboration to enhance how the health system cares for patients
More resources committed to sharing information and coordinating patient care
ThedaCare and UnitedHealthcare have launched an accountable care program to help improve people’s health and their satisfaction with their health care experience.
Through the new accountable care program, more resources will be dedicated to care coordination, which will make it easier for care providers to share important health information. As a result, ThedaCare physicians will share in savings generated through providing care under a value-based, patient-centric care model focused on keeping people healthy.
More than 34,000 people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored health plans are eligible to benefit from this collaboration starting July 1.
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 ThedaCare will work together to better coordinate patients’ care, using shared technology, timely data, and information about emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Patients may also receive services to help manage their chronic health conditions by helping to enhance relationships with their personal physicians and encouraging healthy lifestyles.
This new arrangement builds on an existing accountable care relationship launched with ThedaCare in 2014 for people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plans.
ThedaCare serves more than 240,000 Northeast Wisconsin patients annually and employs more than 7,000 health care professionals throughout the region. ThedaCare has seven hospitals located in Appleton, Neenah, Berlin, Waupaca, Shawano, New London and Wild Rose and 34 clinics in nine counties.
“We have long engaged with UnitedHealthcare to apply our expertise in health care innovation and patient-centered programs to improve the health of their plan participants and advance toward overall population health management,” said David Krueger, M.D., executive director and medical director of ThedaCare ACO. “Together, we expect to achieve even better health outcomes and improve patient satisfaction, while reducing the overall cost of care.”
UnitedHealthcare will supplement ThedaCare’s own data to help support overall population health, helping to give 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 and ThedaCare 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 Dustin Hinton, president and CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin.
UnitedHealthcare serves more than 1.5 million residents in Wisconsin with a network of 150 hospitals and more than 28,000 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 $46.7 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 ThedaCare
For more than 100 years, ThedaCare™ has been committed to finding a better way to deliver serious and complex healthcare to patients throughout Northeast Wisconsin. The organization serves over 240,000 patients annually and employs more than 7,000 healthcare professionals throughout the region. ThedaCare has seven hospitals located in Appleton, Neenah, Berlin, Waupaca, Shawano, New London and Wild Rose as well as 34 clinics in nine counties. ThedaCare is the first in Wisconsin to be a Mayo Clinic Care Network Member, giving our specialists the ability to consult with Mayo Clinic experts on a patient’s care. ThedaCare is a non-profit healthcare organization with a level II trauma center, comprehensive cancer treatment, stroke and cardiac programs as well as a foundation dedicated to community service. The ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center in Appleton opened in February. For more information, visit www.thedacare.org or follow ThedaCare on Facebook and Twitter.
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.
