United subsidiary launches consumer Web site

UnitedHealth Group subsidiary OptumHealth has launched a direct-to-consumer Web site meant to support a new brand for the health plan giant, as well as to push its individual health insurance products.

The site, myOptumHealth.com, has many of the same features as WebMD and other established consumer health sites. It includes the option to create and store a personal health record. It has a search-by-symptom tool, as well as information about medical tests and procedures. Like WebMD, myOptumHealth is supported in part by pharmaceutical advertising (link).

An external medical advisory board made up of 15 medical professionals reviews the articles, which are written both by staff medical professionals and freelancers, said Janet Bruno, MD, medical director of OptumHealth Consumer Solutions.

The fact that the United name or logo is absent from the site could be a sticking point for physicians who already have to help patients sort through often conflicting health advice from various sources on the Web.

"We're all in favor of providing consumers information about health, but it's important for the consumer to be aware of the source of the information," said Amber Pasricha Beck, spokeswoman for the California Medical Assn.

United said it wants to establish OptumHealth as a stand-alone brand.

"The reason we launched a consumer health portal is we are desirous of establishing a new direct-to-consumer brand platform," said Scott Heimes, senior vice president for OptumHealth Consumer Solutions. The new site is similar to the customized Web pages that OptumHealth offers some employers for their employees, Heimes said.

"Under consumer-directed health care, consumers are increasingly looking for retail-like experiences for managing consumption of health care systems," he said.

That phenomenon could become a tidal wave if government health care reform includes an individual mandate, rebate for insurance or otherwise larger role for the individual market, and Heimes hinted that United is launching the site with that in mind.

"This is a long-term investment for us, and it begins with building a base of consumers, and becomes an aggregated community we can leverage as the market shifts," Heimes said.

The marketplace section of myOptumHealth includes links to United's Golden Rule individual health insurance products; its pharmaceutical benefit manager Prescription Solutions; OptumHealth Bank, which offers health savings accounts, and United's health discount program OptumHealth Allies.

United also plans to offer OptumHealth disease management and coaching services on a individual basis, Heimes said.

The site's Find a Doctor tool uses a physician database from another United subsidiary, Ingenix. The index lists the names and addresses of physicians both in and outside of United's networks.

Ultimately, that search tool also may turn up quality and cost information associated with individual physicians, Heimes said. The exact nature and methodology behind the cost and quality information is still under consideration, he said.

The site may end up hosting a kind of matchmaking service for visitors to find a physician whose experience and other characteristics are lined up with what a visitor enters in a search query -- sort of an "eHarmony" for patients and physicians, Heimes said.