Optum® Practice Extend helps health plans engage independent primary care physicians

Are you overlooking any of your provider populations?

Independent primary care physician (PCP) practices not employed by a large hospital or health system can represent up to 50% of a health plan’s membership and spend.¹ Yet health plans often struggle to engage these providers in value-based outcome programs to help improve quality of care and reduce the total cost of care.

Health plans can support their independent PCPs by offering financial incentives and resources to support outcomes-based goals and improve patient care. This can help drive better financial opportunities and continued independence for these PCPs.

Infographic showing how Practice Extend enables VBC success for independent PCPs

A differentiated approach for providers

Optum® Practice Extend is a comprehensive program that helps health plans engage independent PCPs. Our proven program not only engages difficult-to-reach providers, but it also drives return on investment (ROI).² It enables PCPs to drive outcomes, grow revenue and remain independent.

Our offering is distinct from typical aggregator solutions and accountable care organizations that are generally provider organizations or companies working with providers to take risk from health plans. Some of the differentiators that contribute to program success include:

Collaborate with health plan on solution design to address most important issues
Leverage client investment in Optum technology, which integrates with your health plan partners (for example, behavioral health, social determinants of health) and more
Offer population support, addressing all lines of business and all members attributed to supported independent PCPs

Key benefits

Practice Extend spans key areas to ensure independent PCPs are set up for success in their journey toward value-based care (VBC).

Enables VBC success for independent PCPs: addresses critical barriers to adoption

Practice Extend addresses lack of insight, lack of incentives and lack of time and resources.

Performance Incentives: increase provider adoption by financial alignment

Performance incentives facilitate a path to value-based care arrangements.

Clinical team: improves member and provider engagement to deliver targeted outcomes

The clinical team supports independent PCP practices with an interdisciplinary care team to drive outcomes.

Team augments PCP staff to support members with appointment scheduling related to care transitions and referral management
Team provides information to support PCPs making better care decisions

Value Impact Modeler: drives ROI through differentiated actionable intelligence

The value impact modeler aligns technology and near real-time analytics to help identify and prioritize next actions.

Analyzes financial, clinical and quality metrics against VBC terms
Identifies performance improvement opportunities
Creates high-impact action plans

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