Optum Centers of Excellence Program Expands Access to Mayo Clinic Services

Cardiovascular

Optum Centers of Excellence Program Expands Access to Mayo Clinic Services

By
Joe Dangor

August 5, 2015

EDEN PRAIRIE and ROCHESTER, Minn., Aug. 5, 2015 — Optum and Mayo Clinic announced that health plans and employers participating in Optum’s leading Centers of Excellence (COE) program now have access to high-quality, cost-effective care from Mayo Clinic care providers who are experts in treating complex and rare conditions.

Optum’s Centers of Excellence provide best-in-class capabilities with proven clinical quality and predictable consumer outcomes. The Center of Excellence designation includes condition-specific, high-performing programs with specialized clinical expertise and care management to support consumer engagement.

Mayo Clinic has participated in Optum’s Transplant COE program for the last 11 years. With this expanded relationship, Mayo Clinic is now also a participant in Optum’s Centers of Excellence for Cancer, Bariatric Surgery and Heart Failure for Mayo Clinic locations in Arizona, Florida and Rochester, Minn.

Mayo Clinic’s Rochester location is also participating in Optum’s COEs for Congenital Heart Disease and Infertility services.

“This expanded relationship with Mayo Clinic provides patients in participating health plans from around the country with greater access to clinically superior, cost-effective health care,” said Mike Weissel, CEO of Optum Consumer Solutions.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jeffrey Smith, Optum, 612-632-6213, jeffrey.p.smith@optum.com
Joe Dangor & Karl Oestreich, Mayo Clinic, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

“Health plans and employers know the value of sending patients with complex and or rare conditions to high-quality centers such as Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic participation in the Optum Centers of Excellence program will enable patients to receive state-of-the art care from highly experienced physicians and health care teams for these conditions,” said Charles Rosen, M.D., medical director, contracting and payer relations at Mayo Clinic.

The Optum Transplant Centers of Excellence network was developed in 1986 and has grown to be the largest network of its kind in the world, managing more than 14,000 transplant referrals annually. Today, Optum offers products and services that promote safe, effective and cost-efficient treatment options for many other complex medical conditions.

The Optum Centers of Excellence program yields tangible results that help improve care while reducing cost. For example, the Optum transplant COE and clinical management program average length of stay was 21 percent lower than the national benchmark in 2013. The program also measured a 16 percent lower incidence than expected by avoiding unnecessary and inappropriate transplants through better diagnosis and more appropriate treatment identification.

This is the third major initiative between Mayo Clinic and Optum. In 2013 the two organizations jointly launched OptumLabs, an open collaborative center for health care research, innovation and translation, which later welcomed AARP as its Founding Consumer Advocate Partner. OptumLabs today has 22 partners in total and has begun publishing results from the more than 100 studies currently in its research pipeline. Earlier this year, Mayo Clinic announced its partnership with Optum360 for revenue management services.

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