Combining health insurance and health providers (medical doctors) into one company is a basis for value based medical care

"What many new companies have in common is that they are involved, to varying degrees, in a newer approach to the provision of health known as value-based care. 

It differs from the more widespread fee-for-service model in which medical providers have an incentive to utilize the healthcare system as much as possible because that drives up compensation. 

Value-based care, by contrast, encourages providers to be more proactive in preventing illness because they also benefit from savings. 

It is too early to tell whether that approach will truly benefit patients or just improve the bottom line for providers and insurers.

UnitedHealth, the sprawling conglomerate that includes 60,000 physicians, a pharmacy benefit manager and an insurance business, is furthest along in the transition. Through its medical provider arm, Optum Care, it has been buying multi-specialty physician practices, many of which focus on more proactively managing patients through home, virtual and on-site care. 

The idea, in a nutshell, is to keep people out of the hospital, because that is where the costs are highest. 

Because UnitedHealth also takes on risk through its insurance arm, it stands to gain by driving down the cost of care. 

UnitedHealth on Wednesday announced it will provide analytics to help Walmart clinics deliver value-based care to Medicare patients.

One key aspect of the race to remake healthcare centers on a long overlooked profession: the family doctor. Because America's system rewards more expensive procedures, medical students prefer to become, say, cardiologists or surgeons. That has prompted a nationwide shortage of primary-care doctors. The long waits to see a doctor have led many Americans to completely abandon the relationship with their primary-care physicians, leading to worse health outcomes.

Companies like Amazon, CVS and UnitedHealth have sensed an opportunity in the primary-care crisis. 

Brian Tanquilut, an analyst at Jefferies, says the big investments in value-based care can realign incentives because primary-care doctors at places like One Medical, which Amazon agreed to buy, earn about double what other family doctors make." [1]

1. EXCHANGE --- Heard on the Street: Dr. Amazon Will See You Now --- A crop of upstarts is offering industry giants a chance to buy their way in and disrupt U.S. healthcare

Wainer, David. 

Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 10 Sep 2022: B.12.