ELLSWORTH — Northern Light Health announced last week that 1,400 of its workers will become employees of Optum, an information and technology-enabled health services business based in Eden Prairie, Minn.
The Portland Press Herald reported that the deal would save the Maine health-care provider an estimated $1 billion over the next decade.
“These employees will continue to support Northern Light Health and become part of the Optum workforce of 220,000 people with a mission to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone,” said Northern Light spokesperson Suzanne Spruce.
“Optum brings immense size and scale to Northern Light that we could not accomplish on our own,” Spruce said. “Partnering with Optum in this way will allow Northern Light Health to leverage that scale to lower cost. For example, in supply chain, we will be able to negotiate pricing based upon global contracts.
“Another example is in revenue cycle, where Optum will share their processes to help us improve the scheduling and billing experience for patients,” Spruce said. “Likewise, Optum is excited to add the expertise of our talented Maine workforce to their team. It is a win, win, win for Northern Light Health, Optum and our staff.”
The staff that are part of the transfer to Optum are those in Revenue Cycle Management, Information Systems, Inpatient Care Management, Analytics, Project Management Office and Supply Chain for Northern Light Health, Spruce said.
“The only clinical facing staff are those in Inpatient Care Management,” Spruce said. “So this has zero effect on TeamHealth, emergency departments, inpatient/outpatient care or other hands-on patient care areas and practitioners. Most of the roles that are transitioning are very important operational support functions — again only care management has direct care clinicians.”
UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Optum, is also enthusiastic about the deal.
“We are privileged to partner with Northern Light Health and build on their success by helping to transform the health care experience for patients, providers and communities across Maine,” said Dan Schumacher, chief strategy and growth officer of UnitedHealth Group, which is headquartered in Minneapolis.
UnitedHealth Group formed Optum in 2011 by merging its existing pharmacy and care delivery services into the single Optum brand, comprising three main businesses: OptumHealth, OptumInsight and OptumRx, according to a press release the company issued at the time. Optum serves employers, government agencies, health plans, life science companies, care providers and individuals and families offering products in data and analytics, pharmacy care services, health care operations and delivery, population health management and advisory services.
The change will occur in March 2023.
“As part of Optum, these team members will have access to more state-of-the-art tools, technologies, processes, skills development training opportunities and new opportunities for advancement,” Spruce said.
“Both Northern Light Health and Optum are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for these team members and to building an exceptional experience for patients, providers and staff,” Spruce said.
After March 26, Northern Light Health will have about 10,850 employees.
The partnership is driven in part by finances.
“Fiscal year 2022 was a hard year and our situation is not unique, it’s a reflection of what is happening in health care throughout Maine, across the country and around the world,” Spruce said. “Much like in other businesses or even in our own personal budgets, in the past year alone, rising costs have affected nearly everything, including higher costs in supply chain and labor costs — including continued need for expensive temporary labor — rises in the cost of medicines, and other expenses. We also continue to experience a shortage in the local workforce, like many other industries. We experienced a loss of $131,717,000 in FY22.”
Northern Light also cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor in financial issues.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Northern Light Health was driven by a Culture of Yes and we demonstrated that by ensuring our communities had continued access to safe care and by making vaccinations and COVID-19 testing easily accessible,” Spruce said. “We also took steps to ensure the health, safety and other needs of our staff through minimum wage adjustments, accelerated hiring, addition of new staffing agencies/solutions, partnerships with local suppliers for PPE and more. These were the right choices, but also added to deeper deficits which we now need to correct.”
Northern Light Health stated in the press release that it would work together with Optum to improve business processes through investment in leading-edge technology and innovation. “This will enable Northern Light Health to access new tools and more resources that ultimately will enhance the patient experience and enable providers to focus on patient care,” Spruce said.
“Optum and Northern Light Health are both values-driven and people- and community-focused,” said Timothy Dentry, president and CEO of Northern Light Health. “Optum brings innovation and expertise to a broad range of support services that will help us manage some operational functions so we can focus on what we do best — care for the people of Maine.”
Northern Light Health said the partnership will:
- Improve the scheduling and billing experience for patients and providers.
- Advance digital capabilities to improve the patient and provider experience.
- Leverage new technology and tools to ensure patients are getting the right care, at the right time, and in the right place, and
- Use data and analytics to anticipate and respond directly to patient, community and staff needs.