A University of Minnesota Medical School course formed in partnership with UnitedHealth Group will undergo revisions, the Minneapolis-based school confirmed to Becker’s Feb. 11.
First taught in 2024, “Leadership and Value: A UnitedHealth Group-UMN Collaboration” is a fourth-year elective that focuses on value-based care. The university’s current syllabus includes weekly case discussions at UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, which is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minn. National UnitedHealth Group leaders also present throughout the course.
“Based on student feedback, instructors are refining the content to focus more broadly on health system science, including value-based care,” a statement from the university said. “The University of Minnesota oversees the entire curriculum and will continue to consider input from UnitedHealth Group. As the state’s largest public medical school, we have the responsibility to educate the next generation of health professionals serving Minnesotans, including ensuring an understanding of the operational, administrative and financial aspects of healthcare.”
In a statement shared with Becker’s, UnitedHealth echoed its continued involvement with the university and said it is “constantly evolving to meet the needs of the university and its students.”
Allison Leopold, MD, a former course participant, had addressed the course’s curriculum in an op-ed published in the Minnesota Reformer Dec. 2. She expressed worries over potentially withheld care in value-based models, as well as UnitedHealth’s corporate interests.
“While the course may encourage critical thinking about the healthcare system, it also welcomes an onslaught of UHG propaganda without counterpoints or fact-checks of their claims. Balancing UHG’s perspective with a neutral academic one — while better than nothing — is not a ‘balance’ at all,” she wrote.
In recent years, UnitedHealthcare has been under scrutiny for its claims denials, which even prompted a line of questioning as health insurance CEOs faced Congress in January.
Despite Dr. Leopold’s critiques, the inaugural course received an average 4.6 rating on a 5-point scale, with 5 being the highest score, from 8 of 9 students, based on an “overall recommend to others” statement, according to an Oct. 15 article published in NEJM Catalyst, an associate publication of The New England Journal of Medicine.
