From a leadership reshuffle to the launch of a nurse practitioner degree program, here are nine updates from Optum that Becker's reported since July 11:
1. Former employees with UnitedHealth Group's Optum and its subsidiaries have taken to social media in August regarding an unknown number of layoffs they say are occurring across the company. Becker's has not confirmed an exact number of employees who may have been terminated or when layoffs would be effective, and UnitedHealth Group declined to provide specific information.
2. Optum Ventures was among the backers of an $8 million funding round for Endear Health, a digital engagement platform specializing in value-based care.
3. Optum partnered with online educator Capella University to launch an educational program for advanced practice nurses in an effort to address the nationwide shortage.
4. Heather Cianfrocco was named president of Optum; she will lead its pharmacy and care delivery divisions through Optum Rx and Optum Health.
5. In a 155-page lawsuit, Cleveland leaders accused numerous retail pharmacies, drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers of hiking insulin prices that they said cost the city millions of dollars. Among those named in the lawsuit are UnitedHealth Group, Optum, OptumRx and OptumInsight.
6. Amar Desai, MD, was named CEO of Optum Health. Wyatt Decker, MD, who has served as Optum Health's CEO since 2019, transitioned to the role of chief physician at UnitedHealth Group.
7. Optum's revenues and earnings both grew by double digits in the second quarter, according to its parent company UnitedHealth Group's quarterly financial report.
8. In 2021, Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Bassett Healthcare Network tapped Optum to provide IT and revenue cycle management services. Tommy Ibrahim, MD, president and CEO of Bassett Healthcare, spoke with Becker's about what the health system's partnership with Optum has achieved more than two years later.
9. EHR vendor Epic Systems, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and Optum pledged their support for the Sequoia Project's new health data initiative that aims to make healthcare data more useful.