Millennium Physician Group and UnitedHealthcare Working Together to Improve Quality and Keep People Healthy

Millennium Physician Group and UnitedHealthcare are working together in a new accountable care program to improve the quality of health care in Southwest Florida and enhance care coordination by promoting a team approach to patient care.

The new relationship comes at a time when clinical advances and new technologies are redefining how care providers and health plans work together to support patients who are becoming more engaged in managing their health and well-being. Through the accountable care program, Millennium will provide patient care under an innovative, value-based model focused on keeping people healthy through the delivery of quality, coordinated health care.

Many patients – particularly those with complex or chronic illnesses – find they sometimes have to connect information from each of their doctor’s visits themselves, and may receive duplicative tests or health care that isn’t coordinated. UnitedHealthcare shares data to help map the many steps in a patient’s health care treatment, from the clinic or pharmacy to a hospital admission or emergency room visit.

Through this accountable care relationship, Millennium and UnitedHealthcare use this data together to better coordinate patients’ health care. Using technology that enables sophisticated population health management, the two organizations are able to identify clear, actionable data specific to individual patients’ health needs and potential missed care opportunities – such as an annual cervical or colorectal cancer screening.

This collaboration also improves the ability to identify patients at high risk and help them reduce ER visits and readmissions to the hospital, manage their chronic health conditions and take their needed medications.

“Our relationship with UnitedHealthcare strengthens our commitment to developing Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which will enable our physicians to continue to focus on four main areas: improved access to primary care, improved transitions of care between inpatient and outpatient settings, improved population management, and quality medical care,” said Geurt Peet, CEO of Millennium Physician Group. “The world of health care is changing rapidly, and there are key challenges ahead for physicians and medical groups. It will be nearly impossible to stay ‘unchanged’ in this current environment. The development of ACOs is one way to adapt to future challenges while remaining focused on patient-centered care.”

Nearly 6,300 people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer and individual health plans are eligible to benefit from this collaboration.

“UnitedHealthcare and Millennium Physician Group are mutually committed to improving the quality and cost of health care,” said Nicholas Zaffiris, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of South Florida. “By working more collaboratively with local care providers and creating a more connected health care experience, we can help improve patient care and enhance people’s ability to live healthier lives.”

UnitedHealthcare serves more than 3.4 million Florida residents with a network of 277 hospitals and nearly 56,000 physicians and other care providers statewide.

More than 15 million people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare plans across the country have access to accountable care programs, delivered in part through more than 800 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 more than $54 billion. By the end of 2018, UnitedHealthcare expects that figure to reach $65 billion.

For more information about UnitedHealthcare’s changing relationships with care providers and how value-based programs are helping to improve quality and people’s health, visit www.UHC.com/valuebasedcare and download the Value-based Care Report.