Optum, parent company of ASC chain SCA Health, is shuttering its telehealth business.
Here are four things physicians need to know.
1. Optum Virtual Care, which was launched in 2021, offers virtual access to physicians and nurse practitioners at any time.
2. "Virtual care has been and will continue to be a core part of our comprehensive, integrated care delivery model designed to provide care to people where, when and how they prefer," an Optum spokesperson told Becker's. "We continually review the capabilities and services we offer to meet the growing and evolving needs of our businesses and the people we serve. As always, we will support affected team members with job placement resources and seek to deploy them where possible to any open roles within the company."
3. News of the closure came shortly after former employees of Optum reported on social media that the company was conducting layoffs.
4. Optum isn't the only organization seeing reduced demand for telehealth. Health systems, including Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, have reported that virtual visits have been on the decline — Kaiser delivered more than 22 million scheduled phone and video visits last year, down from nearly 24.5 million virtual appointments in 2022 and 28.8 million in 2021.