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UnitedHealth (UNH) Enhances Virtual Care for Better Outcomes

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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH - Free Report) recently enhanced its virtual care solutions with local physicians for members under employer-sponsored plans. The health insurance giant also launched a Virtual Primary Care service that provides access to medical services in a better fashion, which is now available in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia.

This initiative is certainly expected to lead to better health outcomes as eligible members can now connect to healthcare providers virtually.
The move is perfect at a time when more and more people are shifting toward telehealth checkups or virtual care visits. It will help people fight their chronic or routine conditions from the comforts of their house. Even though vaccine shots will be provided at large sometime soon, it is being said that telehealth care is here to stay.

Per a recent UnitedHealth survey, one quarter of participants opined that they prefer a telehealth relationship with a primary care physician as compared to in-person visits. The health insurance company even updated a policy to boost the usage of virtual care among its members. This policy is effective Jan 1, 2021 and is applicable to both fully insured and self-insured employer plans. The plan will continue to repay local primary care physicians, specialists and select therapy providers for providing telehealth services.

The new Virtual Primary Care service is now available to members under certain employer-sponsored fully-insured or self-funded health plans in 11 states. The company expects to expand the service to more states in 2021. The Virtual Primary Care solution allows selected members to access primary care appointments with no or little cost-sharing.

The company is focusing on modernizing technology for improved health outcomes. This also poises it well for long-term growth as it caters to current demand. Other factors, such as the growing government business and a healthy balance sheet also contribute to the health insurance giant’s performance.  

Zacks Rank and Price Performance

In six months’ time, the stock has risen 14.1% compared with its industry’s growth of 13.1%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


Other stocks in the same space, such as Humana Inc. (HUM - Free Report) , Molina Healthcare, Inc (MOH - Free Report) and Anthem Inc. have also rallied 2.3%, 21.5% and 22.1% each over the same time frame.

UnitedHealth currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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