UnitedHealthcare Launches New Virtual Primary Care Offering

UnitedHealthcare is expanding the availability of virtual care with local physicians for members enrolled in employer-sponsored plans, while also introducing a new virtual primary care service designed to enable access to medical services.

Through both efforts, eligible members may be able to visit virtually with healthcare providers for various types of care, including wellness, routine and chronic condition management, the insurer’s officials said in an announcement.

With the goal of helping to improve access to local care providers, UnitedHealthcare has updated a policy to help encourage the use of virtual care and enable eligible members to meet with their physicians virtually. Effective Jan. 1, the policy applies to fully insured and self-insured employer plans and will continue to reimburse local primary care physicians, specialists and select therapy providers for administering certain care through telehealth as an alternative to in-person visits, UnitedHealthcare said.

The new virtual primary care service, which is designed to make it easier for people to establish and maintain a relationship with a primary care physician, is currently available for members enrolled in certain employer-sponsored fully insured or self-funded health plans in 11 states. The service, offered in collaboration with a national telehealth provider group, is expected to be expanded to more states in 2021 and is part of a broader UnitedHealthcare effort to help enable members to use technology to access care, officials noted.

They further pointed out that The number of Americans with a primary care physician has declined recently, with an estimated 25 percent of people lacking this type of ongoing relationship with a care provider, referencing a 2019 JAMA Network study. Reversing that trend can be important given people with a relationship with a primary care physician may be more likely to receive high-value care services, such as preventive screenings, and report better care access and experiences compared to people without this type of care provider, they added.

And according to a recent UnitedHealthcare survey, one-quarter of respondents said they would actually prefer a virtual relationship with a primary care physician rather than in-person visits. Separately, some people who see a doctor virtually report no difference in the quality of the visit, compared to an in-person appointment; meanwhile another study found patients “vastly preferred” a virtual experience, due to the convenience and the elimination of travel time.

“The UnitedHealthcare Virtual Primary Care service and updated policy helps expand the use of virtual care from delivering care to people who are sick, to now also focusing on preventing and detecting disease before it starts and, if needed, helping people more conveniently manage certain chronic conditions,” Anne Docimo, M.D., chief medical officer, UnitedHealthcare, said in a statement. “As more people and care providers move to a digital-first mindset, UnitedHealthcare will continue to modernize our approach to health benefits and invest in new ways to use technology to help make it more convenient for our members to access primary care and other types of medical services.”

The virtual primary care service enables eligible members to access primary care appointments with no or little cost sharing, and during the COVID-19 public health emergency, cost sharing will be waived for all members seeking testing or treatment for the virus, including virtually, UnitedHealthcare executives said. Through virtual primary care, eligible members are able to access services such as:

•     Annual wellness visits and appointments for minor ailments.
•     Regular follow-ups and checkups for ongoing conditions like asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and more.
•     Writing prescriptions
•     Ordering lab tests and reviewing the results.
•     Referrals to specialists.

So far, virtual primary care is currently available in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.