Prescription Solutions by OptumRx—the mail-order prescription and drug benefit management arm of UnitedHealth Group Inc.—wants to pick up a bigger share of business from private health insurers to go with its foothold in Medicare and Medicaid.
Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth got Prescription Solutions in 2005 as part of its $9 billion deal for what was Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.
PacifiCare took on the UnitedHealth name after the deal.
Prescription Solutions fills prescriptions for more than 12 million members of UnitedHealth and other insurance plans.
Growth plans call for being “very active in supporting” third-party administrators that run benefit programs for self-insured employers, according to Jacqueline Kosecoff, OptumRx’s chief executive who works out of Cypress.
Prescription Solutions also is working to increase sales to public-sector employers, including school districts, state and local governments and health-and-welfare trusts operated on behalf of labor unions.
The company hopes to land large employers with what are called “carve-outs,” essentially where a company can decide to go with one drug benefit manager even if they spread their health insurance among several companies.
UnitedHealth last month rebranded its service companies under the Optum name, including Prescription Solutions, a mental health benefits unit and a health information company previously known as Ingenix.
Prescription Solutions has grown under UnitedHealth’s ownership.
The company now is the fourth-largest pharmacy benefit manager in the U.S., up from 17th in 2004, according to Kosecoff.
Revenue has jumped from $4.1 billion in 2006—the first full year under United’s ownership—to a projected $18.6 billion to $19 billion this year.
The number of prescriptions filled, which is considered a better measure of drug benefit manager performance, grew from about 105 million in 2006 to an expected 374 million this year.
Kosecoff said it’s been organic growth.
“We have not acquired a company specifically for OptumRx/Prescription Solutions,” she said.
Government programs also have been a growth avenue—especially a drug benefit that came about as part of the Medicare Modernization Act passed by Congress in 2006.
“We took very seriously garnering a strong presence in the Medicare world,” Kosecoff said.
Today, one in five people who are in “managed Medicare,” which includes Medicare health maintenance organizations, get their drug benefits through Prescription Solutions OptumRx.
The company also has a big presence in Medicaid, the health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans that’s paid for with state and federal funds.
Skilled Deals
Foothill Ranch-based nursing home operator Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. has bought a home healthcare agency in New Mexico and a dementia care facility in Las Vegas in two separate deals.
Skilled said a subsidiary recently agreed to buy Altura Homecare and Rehab, a home-healthcare business that serves the Albuquerque, N.M., area.
Skilled also said that it was buying the real estate and related operations of Willow Creek Memory Care at San Martin in Las Vegas. Willow Creek is licensed for 62 assisted-living beds for patients with dementia.
Skilled said it will change the facility’s name to Vintage Park at San Martin.
Financial terms of the deals weren’t disclosed. Skilled said it expects both to close in the current quarter.
Bits and Pieces
Advanced Sterilization Products, an Irvine-based unit of Johnson & Johnson, introduced Glosair Healthcare Environmental Decontamination, a set of devices for disinfecting hospital and operating rooms, at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology conference in Baltimore. Glosair disinfects by creating a fog of 5% hydrogen peroxide that’s dispersed to all hard, nonporous surfaces, including difficult-to-reach areas … SOHM Inc., a generic drug maker based in Buena Park, said it retained DME Securities LLC of New York to advise it on growth matters, including future financing … Hans Keirstead, a University of California, Irvine professor and stem cell research expert, and Chris Airriess, chief operating officer of Irvine-based California Stem Cell Inc., recently spoke at a pair of stem cell advocacy and academic conferences … ChromaDex Corp., an Irvine maker of research tools for the food and beverage industries, said that it would work with Cott Beverages Inc. to develop a proprietary ingredient for use in food and beverages, cosmetics and nutraceuticals. Cott Beverages is a subsidiary of Canada’s Cott Corp. … Accuracy & Integrity Advisors Inc. of Fullerton will open a community health clinic in partnership with the East Whittier City School District in August.
