UnitedHealthcare and Catalyst Health Network Collaborate to Improve Patient Care in North Texas

From UnitedHealth Group:

UnitedHealthcare and Catalyst Health Network Collaborate to Improve Patient Care in North Texas

• Partnership marks UnitedHealthcare’s first primary care, physician-led Accountable Care Organization in North Texas

DALLAS (Jan. 22, 2015) — 

Catalyst Health Network and UnitedHealthcare have launched an accountable care organization (ACO) to improve care coordination and enhance health services for UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored health plan participants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The two organizations are working together to help shift the local health care system to one that rewards quality and value over volume of procedures performed. Catalyst Health Network is composed of primary care physicians who will be responsible for ensuring patients receive the right care in the right place at the right time. Physicians will receive real-time patient data, enabling them to monitor every aspect of patient care and maintain all clinical information in a secure patient registry. The goal is to help improve care quality while reducing the overall cost of care.

UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored plan participants who currently receive care from Catalyst Health Network providers will not have to do anything differently to receive the benefits of this new collaboration, which also includes enhanced care coordination and follow-up.

“Working with UnitedHealthcare, our physicians will help transform the way care is delivered in North Texas and enhance our patients’ health and well-being,” said Christopher Crow, M.D., president, Catalyst Health Network.

UnitedHealthcare and Catalyst Health Network will coordinate evidence-based care, ensuring that primary care physicians, specialists and facilities are aligned with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI’s) “Triple Aim” objective: increase patient satisfaction, improve the health of the population and reduce the cost of health care.

Catalyst’s care providers will be eligible to receive payment incentives based on specific quality metrics and evidence-based guidelines, such as hospital readmission rates, disease management and prevention, patient safety and care delivery, total cost savings and patient satisfaction.

“Our relationship with Catalyst Health Network is helping improve our plan participants’ access to quality care while also attempting to lower costs,” said Tom Quirk, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Texas. “Our work together illustrates the deep relationships we are building with North Texas care providers to enhance health services and improve the coordination of care.”

This new ACO relationship is UnitedHealthcare’s first primary care, physician-led ACO in North Texas.

Care providers nationwide are showing strong interest in a shift to value-based care. UnitedHealthcare’s physician and hospital reimbursements that are tied to a variety of different value-based programs have nearly tripled in the last three years to $36 billion annually. The company projects this reimbursement will reach $65 billion by 2018. For more information about UnitedHealthcare’s accountable care organization initiatives, visitwww.AccountableCareAnswers.com.

UnitedHealthcare serves more than 3.9 million Texans with a care provider network of 520 hospitals and more than 52,000 care providers statewide.

About Catalyst Health Network
Catalyst Health Network is leading the way for independent physicians to successfully provide coordinated, high quality care to their patients. Catalyst Health Network, a Texas nonprofit health corporation, enables physicians to remain independent and still enjoy the services and structure needed to be successful in the new value based world of healthcare. For more information, visit www.catalysthealthnetwork.com or follow @CatalystHN on 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 800,000 physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. Globally, UnitedHealthcare serves 45 million people in health benefits and 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.

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