Transitioning transportation and language services to better support customers: The Optum – ProCare strategic alliance

Matt: Yes. After a careful evaluation of our offering, we have determined it is better for our clients to work directly with the service provider. Consequently, we have formed a strategic alliance with ProCare, an industry leader and the largest, privately held transportation and language services company. Effective October 21, 2024, Optum will no longer fulfill transportation and language service requests from our clients.

Matt: As we evaluated the market, our clients' needs, and what it would take for Optum to deploy differentiated solutions, we determined that the best path for stakeholders was to align services with ProCare, which was previously our primary provider for transportation and language services. This transition will ensure continued service excellence and competitive pricing for our shared clients and allow Optum to redeploy resources in support of our core offerings.

Cortland: It is the best situation for our clients. ProCare focuses our transportation and language service offering exclusively on this industry's claims, and our ability to meet and exceed service levels is unsurpassed. ProCare has matured beyond any growth challenges, and we share a mutual commitment with Optum to deliver the highest level of customer service.

Cortland: ProCare offers significant value and advantages to our transportation and language services clients. From a service standpoint, ProCare makes more follow-up and quality check calls than anyone else in the industry. We understand special files and have the provider network backing to facilitate services. Our training platform is hands-on, and our customer service representatives are able to handle any referrals, regardless of complexity. ProCare customer service representatives love what they do, and it shows in their daily interactions with clients.

From a technology standpoint, the proprietary referral management system ProCare uses allows us to manage each request and tailor outcomes specific to each client's needs. It also includes the ability to track service and rank providers based on compliance and customer feedback. ProCare provides real­time communication and management of referrals and generates detailed, customizable reports that measure the overall success rate of their service, as well as identify trends and other cost-saving measures.

Matt: Optum expects that our clients will be supported with the same quality and value they are accustomed to. By transitioning to ProCare for transportation and language services, we were able to produce a "win-win" for both organizations. ProCare will continue their impressive growth and market-leading position in this space and strengthen an already powerful partnership. And here at Optum, we can streamline our operations and focus team members and resources on enhancing our core solutions.

Matt: From the initial ideation, through the finalization of the transition plan, our goal was for this transition to be as seamless as possible. We have worked closely with ProCare to identify process changes and have timed this transition so that service requests will be moved without any negative impacts.

Matt: Providing durable medical equipment (DME) and helping arrange in-home care is a critically important part of the Optum service offering. As part of an ongoing evaluation of all services, we've identified the need to streamline this offering and are looking at additional technology to drive improvements in order fulfillment and efficiency. We're also working closely with our broader enterprise to identify areas of synergy. I am excited about the future as we begin rolling out improved offerings in this space.

Matt: Over the past year, Optum Workers' Comp and Auto No-Fault has been implementing a strategic plan to sharpen our focus on our core market offerings — the lines of business in which our products and services lead the industry or have the capacity to do so in the future. Adjustments to our business, such as the earlier sale of Settlement Solutions to ExamWorks, or this recent alliance with ProCare, allow us to align our resources and investments toward transforming and growing those core offerings we feel can be best-in-class.

Without diminishing the importance of the capabilities we've transitioned, it's true that our business strength was diluted slightly over the last few years as we tried to service a broad product line. By transitioning some lines of business to external partners, we have found ways to deliver even better value to clients. Our goal remains to make things better for injured persons and deliver value for our clients through differentiated service, quality, and patient outcomes.

As for what's next, we are hard at work transforming our technology to a modernized, flexible platform with capabilities that will make it easier for our internal employees and our client users to perform their jobs. We're also evaluating our processes and implementing changes to drive even higher quality and efficiency while identifying areas for automation. In addition, we're evaluating our talent and making some strategic moves to better align our team members to our strategic vision. We strive to be the best partner in this space. Optum will continue to have strong networks in the pharmacy, ancillary, and managed care space; we will drive efficiencies and demonstrate quality while offering market­competitive pricing; and we will demonstrate and stand behind the value we provide by helping produce the best clinical outcomes and experiences for injured persons.