UnitedHealthcare, Quest Diagnostics Create Value-Based Care Arrangement for Laboratory Services

UnitedHealthcare and Quest Diagnostics have agreed to a value-based care arrangement, saying they have created a “long-term strategic partnership” designed to reduce costs and provide better care. In addition, Quest will be a national in-network lab provider for all UnitedHealthcare plan participants beginning January 1, 2019.

In a joint press release, the 2 organizations said they will “focus on ways to create more personalized care recommendations and a simpler consumer experience for the more than 48 million people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare plans.”

The companies said they will work together on value-based programs, aligning incentives in a way similar way as accountable care arrangements between UnitedHealthcare and more than 1100 hospitals and 110,000 physicians.

The agreement includes data sharing with physicians “to improve patient care,” Quest executives said on a call with investors Thursday night after the announcement. The companies said data sharing will help better anticipate what patients need in terms of care, as well as reduce gaps.

Working with UnitedHealthcare’s OptumRx unit, the companies will use blockchain technology to reduce administrative costs, they said.

“Lab data is quickly becoming the personalized roadmap that identifies the path to the next best action for individual patients,” Dan Schumacher, UnitedHealthcare’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “With the addition of Quest to our network we will now be able to work together on an even broader scale, and we appreciate that Quest has helped develop a value-based approach to lab services that will focus on improving patient outcomes, better coordinating care with physicians, and meaningfully reducing costs.”

Quest said it will reinvest $75 million of the money it received from President Donald Trump’s tax reform into upgrading patient service centers and enhancing digital offerings.