Sep 2 2011
The insurer will acquire the management arm of a physician practice.
(Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune: UnitedHealth's Optum Division To Take On Functions For California Physicians Group
UnitedHealth Group continues to expand its Optum health services division, entering into an agreement to handle non-clinical operations at one of California's largest physicians groups. The Minnetonka-based company confirmed Wednesday that Optum has entered into a "strategic relationship" with Monarch HealthCare, an Irvine-based group of more than 2,300 independent physicians (Crosby, 8/31).
KHN's Capsules blog: Consolidation Trend Continues As UnitedHealth Picks Up Calif. Doctor Group
It's the largest and latest of a series of deals that have put United's health services subsidiary, OptumHealth, in more direct control of doctors around the country ... In California, insurers and other companies are barred from directly employing doctors. But executives at other physician management groups say the firms can still exert a lot of control (Weaver, 9/1).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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