Minneapolis-based Allina Health plans to move 2,000 IT and revenue cycle employees to Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.
Non-profit organization Allina, which has 12 hospitals and more than 90 clinics, said the relationship with Optum would allow it to:
• Continue to advance information systems solutions to improve the patient and provider experience.
• Optimize the billing experience for patients and providers by implementing industry-leading technologies and processes across revenue cycle operations.
• Adopt innovative technologies at an accelerated pace.
“Healthcare is changing rapidly and the technology needs to support the delivery of care are increasingly complex,” David Ingham, DO, vice president and chief information officer at Allina Health, said in a statement. “As we look to the future, we need to collaborate on solutions that will support and accelerate our care delivery experience by bringing size and scale to innovation and technology. This new relationship with Optum brings the best of both organizations to the table to support “We are grateful to retain the knowledge and talent of our team members who will continue to be strongly connected to Allina Health.”
TO history in the Minneapolis Star Tribune He noted that the deal is also expected to reduce expenses in a health system that in July announced about 350 job cuts amid high labor costs and delays in patient discharges.
“It is not the only reason, it is not the reason behind this change, but [savings] is a piece that will help us as we work to overcome the pretty serious financial challenges we face this year,” Ingham told the Star tribune. “We don’t have the size and scale of an Optum to offer some of these really emerging spaces,” he added.
Optum has made similar outsourcing agreements with other health systems. For example, in January 2023, Maine-based Northern Light Health, which has 10 hospitals, outsourced revenue cycle management, information systems, hospital care management, analytics, office project management and supply chain management.
Northern Light Health has 987 licensed beds, a single physician-led medical group, eight nursing homes with 585 long-term beds, five emergency transportation members, 37 primary care locations and more than 12,000 people in Maine.
Approximately 1,400 of those Northern Light Health employees became Optum employees beginning in March 2023, becoming part of Optum’s 220,000-person workforce.
