Optum/Change Healthcare Merger
Customer Insights 2022

Merger’s Impact on Healthcare Industry a Top Concern

“We know quite a bit about the merger between Optum and Change Healthcare. We have business ties with Optum. My initial reaction to the merger is unfavorable, to be honest. My concern is that Optum will become too big and create a monopoly by buying everything. My other concern is the potential for Optum to dictate what Change Healthcare does. We want Optum to leave Change Healthcare alone. We don’t want Change Healthcare’s strategy or focus to be impacted. We realize that there could be positive things that come from the merger, but we want Change Healthcare to remain as autonomous as possible.” —Director (customer of both Change Healthcare and Optum)

“When Optum absorbed a previous vendor of ours, the performance got worse. After the Optum acquisition, they made some management changes. We use Optum products for a lot of things. Optum is a massive company, and we use their products all across our space. We find that our experience and the quality of service are really dependent on the individual team that we are working with; just working with Optum doesn’t guarantee good or bad outcomes. If I didn’t have to work with Optum, I probably wouldn’t. But then again, they are massive in the space and buying up lots of smaller players.“ —VP (customer of both Change Healthcare and Optum)

Customers Want Vendor Leadership to Improve Payer/Provider Relationships

Respondents advise leadership from Optum and Change Healthcare to follow through on promises to streamline the payer/provider relationship. Provider organizations feel that they often have to jump through hoops to fulfill payer requirements and that the current process is not aligned for optimal efficiency. One VP (a Change Healthcare customer) noted, “If I had to give the companies advice, it would be to make sure they are really serious about streamlining the relationship between payers and providers. Payers should stop all of their rules and things designed to deny claims. . . . We are just tired of keeping up with new authorization programs, new medical necessity rules, and new tier-to-tier physician reviews for admissions. The changes just go on and on.”

Some respondents feel that the vendors’ customer support representatives lack experience and knowledge and that a renewed focus on meeting customer needs would help improve service and relationships. Other interviewed customers want Optum and Change Healthcare to communicate more transparently about the merger—at the time of data collection, a few respondents had not yet received any information from their vendor. (Legal limitations may be a factor in this lack of communication. Optum and Change Healthcare have published what information they can.)

“The advice that I would give to Optum and Change Healthcare is twofold. First, they need to get back to their roots of customer service to make sure that they are meeting the needs of the organization and their customers. Second, Optum and Change Healthcare need to keep the value of their products or services in mind to make sure that those things are affordable and are translating into real dollars for the customer.” —Manager (customer of both Change Healthcare and Optum)

“I do not have an announcement email from Change Healthcare saying they have merged with Optum and telling us how it is going to impact us as an entity that uses their product. It would have been better if they had sent out something about how the merger will impact the front end, whether it should be seamless, and so on. But I don’t see anything like that in any of the Change Healthcare emails that I have. I would advise the vendor’s leadership to do a better job of keeping their constituents informed of their changes. The vendor should reach out and have some town halls or question-and-answer sessions so that we understand what the merger means.” —Director (customer of Change Healthcare)