OptumInsight and Change Healthcare to combine

A pair of healthcare companies have announced that they will combine in an effort to improve healthcare outcomes and lower costs.

According to a news release, OptumInsight and Change Healthcare have joined forces. Change will provide software and data analytics, technology services and research, advisory, and revenue cycle management offerings in an effort to make healthcare work better for everyone.

The companies’ combine capabilities will help to connect and simplify clinical, administrative, and payment processes, leading to better health outcomes and experiences for everyone, the release says.

“Together we will help streamline and inform the vital clinical, administrative and payment processes on which health care providers and payers depend to serve patients,” Andrew Witty, president of UnitedHealth Group and CEO of Optum, said in the release. “We’re thrilled to welcome Change Healthcare’s highly skilled team to create a better future for health care.”

The release says that some of the opportunities to enhance the healthcare system include:

• Helping physicians make informed, clinically advanced patient care decisions
• Making healthcare simpler, more efficient, and more cost effective
• Simplifying financial interactions among physicians, payers, and consumers

“This opportunity is about advancing connectivity and accelerating innovations and efficiencies essential to a simpler, more intelligent and adaptive health system,” Neil de Crescenzo, president and CEO of Change Healthcare says in the release. “We share with Optum a common mission and values and importantly, a sense of urgency to provide our customers and those they serve with the more robust capacities this union makes possible.”