Some quick notes on UnitedHealth pulled together fast, to brief those unfamiliar with the threat to the NHS that it poses:
NHS chiefs tell Theresa May it is time to curb privatisation: can it be true?
This is the ultimate in cynical deception. We’re told that the fox is trying to improve the security of the NHS henhouse! In fact the part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that Stevens proposes removing makes monopoly control of the NHS illegal under competition law rules. That ban has, as intended, blocked the NHS from excluding private sector competition for its budget and was used as a means for the private sector to extract profits from public funds which should have paid for patient care. But the same rules also make control of the NHS by a company, such as a health insurer like UnitedHealth, illegal. It is these rules that Stevens is now saying he wants removed, at the time when UH is already entrenched inside the NHS: UH man Stevens heads the NHS and UH subsidiary Optum is involved across the country in processing patient care payments for GP practices. This legal change will not halt the privatisation of the NHS, it will accomplish it!
Simon Stevens is posing as a neutral bystander when he is in reality facilitating UnitedHealth’s control of the UK health system. He is enabling a corporate monopoly of the NHS whilst pretending to be against privatisation. Removing competition rules would also have the effect of allowing a now legal takeover to take place behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny.
Thanks to Stevens diligent work facilitating and heading up UnitedHealth’s expansion into the UK over a period of nearly two decades, UnitedHealth, through its subsidiary Optum, is today now well placed in the system to integrate and siphon off the UK’s NHS budget.
Simon Stevens’ CV is here: http://selloff.org.uk/nhs/CVforSimonStevens260516.pdf
Here is an update on UnitedHealth in the NHS:
They have had CCG contracts in every STP area
Their decision support software is used in most GP practices (it was bought by Stevens for the NHS in 2009)
UH was hired onto NHS England’s commissioning outsourcing framework in 2015
UH was hired as consultant and supplier to all of NHS England’s own Commissioning Support Units
UH was selected as one of only two companies on the NHS Shared Business Services Medicine Management Framework offered to CCGs. It has a business relationship with the other one
UH is shaping and integrating the system via IT system involvement, handling contracts and/or advising on cuts in many areas
They have been handling referrals for at least 21 CCGs, which has included developing a list of “procedures of limited clinical value” for CCG use in negotiations with providers, many of which are elective procedures that private providers can sell to patients denied NHS care for them.
Optum was hired last year by NHS England and the Department of Health to shape Independent Care Systems across the NHS, so far they operating in this specific capacity in at least 7 STPs
The Senior Clinical Advisor to NHS England on Integrated Care Systems is the director of an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) which co-owns a company with Optum; and he also was hired last year by NHS Right Care to focus on leadership https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/2018/08/14/professor-nick-harding-obe-joins-nhs-rightcare/
Hired by NHS England to benchmark spend in local area teams, and devised a “data capture template” for specialised services
Partnered with at least two of the largest “GP Super Partnerships” which are expanding and together span ten STP areas so far
GPs from one of the GP super partnerships have formed a company with Optum
Processing data for multiple CCGs, including identifiable data. Controlling data access for staff in Lincolnshire
Optum staff can be found in key roles in the NHS, including CCGs, Hospitals and at STPs. Also there are many NHS staff have left for Optum in recent years.
Wider influence in the system: partnered with NHS Confederation, the Kings Fund and Nuffield Trust, 2020Health. Optum sponsors BMJ events. The BMJ publishes research from OptumLabs. Regular presence at and sponsor of NHS meetings and conferences.
Paid associate of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Health, which “is recognised as one of the preferred sources of information on health in parliament” (quote is from the APPG website)
Corporate Partner of the National Association of Primary Care involved in implementing the primary care home model across the NHS. Optum is also on their council
Training the “Next Generation” of GPs, on a programme funded by NHS England
Handling Freedom Of Information Requests in Lincolnshire
Six Lords have interests in UnitedHealth, one of them is on the NHS Improvement Board (Lord Carter has shares).
Partnered with charities AgeUK and Alzheimers Society and in education with health departments within the LSE and Imperial college.
An UnitedHealth Director was chosen by the Department of Health to drive new technology and drugs through the NHS – until he was announced as the new Optum CEO. The position was subsequently taken by Lord Darzi – who heads an Institute which is partnered with Optum.