Healthcare organizations are formed to improve the delivery of health services to the people of a given place. The development of a framework is a key aspect that must be checked when thinking about a new healthcare organization. These firms may serve as platforms where diagnosis for various diseases is made. This paper explores how United Healthcare Corporation (UHC) in the US is prepared to meet the health care needs in the next decade.
Description of the Organization
UHC is an American healthcare and insurance company based in Minnesota that offers health care products and services such as drugs and insurance. The firm was founded in 1977 by Richard T. Burke and it has coverage in the whole world. Currently, the executive chairman is Stephen Hemsley, and Sir Andrew Witty is the chief executive officer. UHC has four divisions namely; UHC Employer and Individual, UHC Medicare and Retirement, UHC Community and State, and UHC Global (“Our vision for empowering health”, 2021). All the divisions work to provide effective healthcare services to US citizens and other populations worldwide.
The Organization’s Overall Readiness
In ensuring that UHC delivers quality healthcare to the covered population, the management has developed health plans for everyone. The programs are customer-centric since people of all ages and lifestyles can be helped. This includes individuals, employers, Medicaid, and Medicare programs that serve to assist patients in various groups (“Our vision for empowering health”, 2021). For example, there are self-employed health insurance medical covers to people not employed by the state governments, corporations, and other official settings.
In this program, TriTerm Medical health insurance is available for citizens with three years of medical benefits in place. Secondly, UHC has partnered with more than 1.3 million doctors and care professionals to deliver quality consultations and other health services in the US and other countries (“Our vision for empowering health”, 2021). The firm seeks to advance care for patients effectively in all parts of the world.
Strategic Plan Addressing Healthcare Issues
Table 1: Strategic plan for addressing health issues.
Potential Issues Within the Organization
Due to the advancement of technology, UHC faces the risk of a breach of healthcare data due to conspiracy of staff or successful hacking by malicious individuals. When data is not protected from third parties, interested persons can use it for their gains. For example, the insurance department may decide to leak data to mislead patients on paying their premiums in an undesired way (Solanki et al., 2020). The other potential issue is financial challenges if there is no competent controller of funds. When a person does not advise an organization on how to manage money, the firm can misuse cash on negligible usage at the expense of priority programs such as technology adoption in reimbursement.
To avoid these issues, first, UHC needs to have trustworthy personnel in charge of HER who will not violate the privacy rules in the company. There is also a need to have strong databases that cannot be hacked easily by people. Additionally, the authentication process when logging in to a firm’s website needs to have a secure configuration (Solanki et al., 2020). The finance department should employ personnel with an appealing track record to prevent challenges in management of resources.
Recommended Model to Use
‘Need-Gap Analysis’ is a suitable model that UHC can utilize to implement its strategic plan. The model is effective in this case since the company needs to plan for the next ten years. Gap planning enables UHC to compare where it is right now in terms of healthcare provision and where it wants to be in the next decade (Solanki et al., 2020). Generally, the model will help the management to know the difference that exists and how the target goals and strategies can be achieved.
UHC is an established organization worldwide and offers health services. If the firm follows the readiness, criteria highlighted and critically undertakes the plan in the set of issues, healthcare provision will be improved in the next ten years. It is also important for UHC to combat potential data breaches and financial challenges so that the strategy will not be altered when activities will be underway.
References
Canady, V. (2020). Maryland health systems partner to offer quality BH services. Mental Health Weekly, 30(7), 3-4. Web.
Our vision for empowering health. Uhc. (2021). Web.
Solanki, G., Wilkinson, T., Daviaud, E., Besada, D., Tamandjou Tchuem, C., Docrat, S., & Cleary, S. (2020). Managing the healthcare demand-supply gap during and after COVID-19. South African Medical Journal, 111(1), 20. Web.