This week in Health Tech
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Good morning, it’s Shelby Livingston , senior health tech reporter. It’s well known that UnitedHealth Group’s clinic business under Optum is massive. It employs or has close relationships with 90,000 doctors and counting.
What’s been harder to understand is how Optum’s acquisitions affect doctors, patient care and local communities.
More than 30 doctors left Oregon Medical Group in the last two years after Optum bought the practice, forcing hundreds if not thousands of patients to find new doctors, the Oregonian reported in a new investigation. Doctors told the news outlet they were saddled with more administrative work when Optum slashed support staff, leaving less time for patient care. Now lawmakers in Oregon are sounding the alarm.
We don’t know for sure if other Optum takeovers led to similar problems. But in my own reporting, I learned that there’s virtually no research telling us how acquisitions by a company with a reach like Optum’s or other corporate owners affect healthcare prices and quality.
And yet, the corporatization of healthcare continues unfettered. Once we do get a handle on the collective impact of these deals, it may be too late to do anything about it.
- Shelby
Electronics giant LG on Monday launched a spinoff business in a bid to branch out and make money from healthcare software.
GoodRx said on Wednesday that it has won back its relationship with Kroger to offer prescription discount coupons to people at its pharmacies. This time, it will work directly with the grocer to do it.