UnitedHealth Group has named Dr. Amar Desai CEO of Optum Health effective immediately, the insurance giant said Wednesday.
Desai returns to Optum following a brief tenure as president of healthcare delivery at CVS Health, a position he took in October. Desai led Optum's Pacific West region before departing.
Prior to his three-year stint at Optum, he served in executive roles for companies such as kidney dialysis company DaVita, primary care provider Paladina Health, now part of Everside Health, and Keck Medicine at the University of Southern California.
Desai will oversee more than 135,000 employees offering services to 103 million U.S. patients, he wrote on LinkedIn. He succeeds Dr. Wyatt Decker, who joined Optum Health in 2019 and is now UnitedHealth Group's chief physician for value-based care.
"I can’t think of a more distinctive platform to make a larger difference in the health and healthcare of communities across the country," Desai wrote on LinkedIn. "I am looking forward to working with our team who always put patients and caregivers at the center of everything we do, and focus on making each interaction and moment with our patients matter."
Optum, which includes the Optum Health provider business, the OptumRx pharmacy benefit manager and the OptumInsight technology services provider, is in growth mode. Last week, it reported second-quarter earnings from operations of $3.7 billion, up almost 13% from a year ago. Optum also agreed in June to buy home health company Amedisys in a $3.3 billion deal. Earlier this year, UnitedHealth closed a $5.4 billion acquisition of home health and hospice provider LHC Group, which will be folded into Optum operations.
Correction: Previous versions of this story mischaracterized Optum's earnings from operations and misstated Dr. Wyatt Decker's job title.
