Part two of a two-part interview with Rick Hardy, CEO of OptumInsight.
In the last of a two-part interview, OptumInsight CEO Rick Hardy, discusses the evolution of the health care analytics industry, including growing interest from health care companies and technology companies alike -- as well as the biggest opportunities to use analytics and algorithms to streamline healthcare.
Evan Sweeney 00:05
Hello, and welcome to UnitedHealth Group’s Weekly Dose Podcast, where we'll get you up to speed on the latest trends shaping the future of health care. I'm your host, Evan Sweeney. This week, we're picking up on our conversation with OptumInsight CEO Rick Hardy. In part one last week, we discussed the company's acquisition of Change Healthcare and the opportunity OptumInsight has to reduce inefficiencies in healthcare. This week, we'll take a step back and discuss the evolution of the healthcare analytics industry broadly, including growing interest from healthcare companies and the technology companies alike. And the biggest opportunities to use analytics and algorithms to streamline healthcare. Now, back to the conversation. Yeah, well, it brings up sort of an interesting question. I think broadly, you know, in recent years, we've really seen a lot of interest from tech companies, you know, looking to get into this into the healthcare space, looking to do different things, some of which may crossover on the on the on the things that you're talking about, and some that don't, but how have you sort of seen this space evolve? And what does the market sort of look like? Currently?
Rick Hardy 01:12
Yeah, it's a, it's a really interesting question, because it's quite dynamic out in the marketplace, you know, and as in my time, you know, here with the company, 1010 plus years, you know, we've seen a real advancement in the application of technology and healthcare, that the interesting thing about it, though, is that we still have so far to go. And so you know, that kind of tells you where healthcare was sitting, you know, 10 years ago, we were still talking about how do we get ubiquitous use of electronic medical records? across healthcare? And now we're talking about things like, Okay, well, that's, you know, it's pretty ubiquitous. How is that information now? accessed across different players in health care? You know, how does, how do you create transparency, about what's happening, and what works and what doesn't work in healthcare. And, you know, there are a lot of trends that are that are also pushing the use of that information in, you know, more, I'll say modern ways. So, you know, the application of advanced analytics and technology, right. So you think about AI and machine learning and natural language processing, and those sorts of things. And, you know, that there's just a tremendous amount of investment going into that, from us, as well, as, you know, other third parties out there, you know, the rise of, of kind of consumer responsibility, and the need for more decision power for consumers and their own healthcare and how they apply that to their families. You know, that means they need information in a way that they can make those decisions. And so, you know, all of these things, I think, are really good for health care overall.
Evan Sweeney 03:06
What are some of the challenges that still face this particular sector? You know, the analytics and technology in healthcare?
Rick Hardy 03:15
Yeah. You know, I think the big one, you know, frankly, is technology is a tool, technology is not the end answer, you know, the end answer, and healthcare still revolves around the application of technology, to interactions and decisions that real people make, that that happen in an exam room, or happen in a back office where somebody you know, or some decision is made that says, this treatment versus that treatment, or we're gonna pay for this way, not gonna pay for that that way. I mean, that's what happens in, in the back end of healthcare. And a lot of those decisions are driven by, you know, that you can apply analytics and you can apply technology to help those happen better, you know, more efficient, efficiently, effectively lead to better outcomes. But, you know, the application of technology at the, sort of in the, in the flow of these decisions and in the, you know, real, somewhat idiosyncratic processes of healthcare, that's the hard part. And so, you know, and that's where I, you know, what, when optimism when we think about OptumInsight, competitive advantage, to me, it's that, you know, we're not going to be Google that at, like, you know, the fanciest algorithms, but where we are going to beat them or, or maybe where we want to partner with them is, how do you apply those super fancy algorithms to particular health care problems, right. That's all Things that that sort of that point of decision making, that real people are going to make. And, you know, I think that's been the trick of healthcare is, you know, you got to really understand what happens down at the ground level.
Evan Sweeney 05:18
I'm curious to how OptumInsight is, you know, working with UnitedHealthcare, the payer side of the house, to kind of generate those efficiencies or, yeah, and
Rick Hardy 05:28
what's better outcomes? Yeah, well, you know, UnitedHealthcare is, is our most value valued client, and one that we really have a long history with, and really many of OptumInsight, capabilities were born out of UnitedHealthcare, originally, it's kind of our heritage, you know, real traditional things that we do and with, with and for, you know, in healthcare that I think are the things that, you know, people might understand or, or, or, and, or valuable to them, you know, if you, if you think about their growth in Medicare Advantage, and the level of complexity that goes into managing those populations, really from both a call risk adjustment perspective, and those programs as well, as really the quality side, I talked a little bit about, you know, those highest stars, quality programs, there's a tremendous amount of enablement for those kinds of programs to work. And it involves helping UnitedHealthcare, work better with their physician networks, and in the care of the patient slash members that both of those two entities have, and, you know, really our work is, is taking the quality guidelines that UnitedHealthcare has, and so which are given to them, by the government, and working with their provider network to apply them, you know, on the ground in the field to their patients, I mean, we, we, we have technology, as well as experts out in the field that work with, you know, 1000s 10s of 1000s, really of, of healthcare providers to do that. And that's one example of something we do, that I think has a lot of value for healthcare, you know, we run a fair amount of, of the operations for UnitedHealthcare from a technology perspective, we provide analytics and things like, you know, population stratification, risk analytics, you know, we help them look at things like trend, and, you know, what, what's happening with their populations over time, and, you know, what's driving costs, as well as what's driving, you know, deviations from, you know, what we consider quality care. So, you know, those are areas that are, I think, are really impactful and foundational to the relationship between OptumInsight and UnitedHealthcare, you know, that the other thing I'll say about, you know, healthcare is they are, you know, by virtue of being our most valued client, as well as, you know, a sister organization to us, you know, that they are an innovation testbed for us, right, it allows us to do development work on new products, you know, new service innovations, and, you know, really work with them to figure out, how does that get applied in, you know, a very real world way. And they're great, you know, great. Both supporters and, and providers of feedback to us so that we can make those, you know, really, really sing out in the marketplace.
Evan Sweeney 08:56
Now. Where do you see OptumInsight a year from now or two years from now? This sort of a longer-term picture?
Rick Hardy 09:05
Yeah. Well, I'll just say, a year or two isn't a long time. That's fair. Coming up pretty quick. You know, obviously, we're really excited to get this change healthcare deal closed and done, and that that will happen here and shorter timeframe than that, but, you know, we will have ahead of us a good integration path with them and so, you know, that'll be a fair amount of our work over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. But I you know, what, if Where do I see insight from an industry perspective and what we want to do, you know, we have, I think, build a really great franchise and change will add to this, that touches a you know, a lot of constituents in healthcare, you know, we work with, you know, for Five of the payers, you know, health plans out there we work with, you know, nine out of 10 hospitals and health systems, you know, 1000s of physician practices, that the challenge, though, that I think is next for us is really integrating, you know, everything between those constituents. Right. And, and in some ways, we still are the ones that kind of help each side in their own world of transactions and processes. And we've got to be the connector between them. So I think that's, you know, a really important part of what we do. I think the other thing that we're seeing, and I mentioned, this is, you know, the transparency of information in healthcare and the connection of different pockets of information to drive better in, you know, intelligence to drive better decisions. You know, I really believe that OptumInsight can push that to a different level within healthcare. And most particularly, I think, as that has to do with providers themselves, so clinical information that helps drive to better decisions and better outcomes for consumers. And then the flip side of that is so that consumers themselves, right. So as they get more engaged in making decisions about their own health care, that we really are the providers of that information.
Evan Sweeney 11:31
Rick, thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate the discussion.
Rick Hardy 11:35
Yeah, you bet. Glad to be here, and I hope it was helpful.
Evan Sweeney 11:40
That's it for this week's episode of UnitedHealth groups weekly dose podcast will be off for the next two weeks. We'll be back on July 22. New episodes on specialty drug costs, maternal health disparities, and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great rest of your week.