UnitedHealth pays Optum physicians 17% more than outside providers

UnitedHealth Group pays its own physician practices much more than it pays competing practices, a new study finds, reinforcing STAT’s own analysis on the subject and presenting fresh evidence that the conglomerate may be skirting a rule designed to curb health insurer profits.

UnitedHealth’s insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, pays practices under its UnitedHealth-owned Optum umbrella 17% more on average for common services than it pays non-Optum practices in the same region, according to the study , published today in Health Affairs. In areas where its insurance arm has a large market share, it pays Optum practices 61% more.

The study’s lead author, Daniel Arnold, said his research was inspired in part by STAT’s reporting from last year, which found that UnitedHealthcare paid 13 of 16