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UnitedHealth said Optum recorded a 10% increase in home health visits over the past year and identified home health as a strong-performing care line. The company also described a payer partnership to manage risk across hospital, skilled nursing and home health care, while Optum Health revenue fell 10% year over year in the third quarter.
Optum’s home health visits increased 10% over the past year, UnitedHealth Group said during its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, identifying the service as one of Optum Health’s strong-performing care lines. The company also said it is expanding its ability, through a payer partnership, to manage care risk across the post-acute continuum, including hospital stays, skilled nursing and home health.
Krista Nelson, CEO of Optum Health, told investors that home health was among the clinical programs performing well and that the business sees room to expand it alongside other care services. She described expansion as an opportunity to deepen Optum’s presence in markets, but did not provide a target for visit growth or a timetable for specific market additions.
Nelson said a partnership with one of Optum’s payers has expanded the company’s ability to manage risk across post-acute care. She described the scope as running from an inpatient hospital stay through skilled nursing facility care and home health. The earnings-call remarks did not identify the payer or disclose the partnership’s financial terms, size or geographic reach.
UnitedHealth also reported that Optum served more than 120 million patients in the third quarter. Optum revenue was $66.9 billion, down from $69.2 billion a year earlier. Optum Health revenue was $22.9 billion, a 10% year-over-year decline. UnitedHealth attributed that decline to serving fewer value-based care patients in markets where Optum did not have enough presence to sustain clinicians.
Home Health Joins Post-Acute Strategy
The reported visit increase matters because it places home health among the care services UnitedHealth says are performing well while the company works to strengthen its value-based care operations. Managing care across hospital, skilled nursing and home settings can give a payer and care provider a way to oversee a patient’s needs across several stages after an acute episode. UnitedHealth’s comments indicate an effort to extend that approach beyond individual care settings.
The remarks also show why the headline growth figure should be read alongside Optum Health’s financial results. Visits rose 10% over the past year, but the company did not disclose the underlying visit count, revenue contribution or how the increase affected costs and outcomes. At the same time, Optum Health revenue fell 10% year over year, which UnitedHealth linked to fewer value-based care patients in some markets. The figures describe different measures and do not by themselves establish that home health growth offset the revenue decline.
For patients and care providers, a wider post-acute network could affect access to home-based services and how follow-up care is coordinated. UnitedHealth said it was seeing improved access to timely care and home health utilization in relevant programs, but it did not offer specific patient outcome data in the source report.
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Optum’s Third-Quarter Care Results
Optum is UnitedHealth’s services arm, and Optum Health is its patient-care business, with a focus on fully accountable value-based care. UnitedHealth’s third-quarter results and leadership comments put the home health figure in the context of a broader effort to build clinical programs and manage care across settings. The company’s reported patient count and revenue figures cover Optum overall and Optum Health, respectively; they are not measures of home health alone.
UnitedHealth CEO Patrick Conway credited the company’s strong third-quarter performance to a continued return to value-based care principles, strong clinical programs and operational improvements. Nelson said strong clinical program performance, including in home health, could be durable as the company heads into 2027. UnitedHealthcare President Robert Hunter also named hospice, surgery centers, Medicare Advantage dual-eligible and chronic-condition special-needs plans, and HMOs among high-performing service lines.
Hunter said the company had seen strong demand for products intended to manage post-acute care risk and reported improved access to timely care and home health use. UnitedHealth leaders also described elevated trends in home- and community-based services, while saying those trends were moderating slightly. That distinction suggests demand remains elevated by the company’s account, but its pace has eased.
““This year, in partnership with one of our payers, we’ve expanded our ability to manage risk across a post-acute continuum. Think from an inpatient hospital stay all the way through SNF and home health.””
— Krista Nelson, CEO of Optum Health
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Growth Metrics Still Limited
UnitedHealth did not provide the number of home health visits behind the 10% increase, the precise measurement period beyond “over the past year,” or a comparison by market. It also did not disclose home health revenue, margins, patient outcomes or the share of Optum Health’s business represented by the service. The reported percentage is a company statement and cannot, from the information provided, be independently assessed against detailed visit data.
The payer partner’s identity, the partnership’s financial terms and the number of patients or facilities involved were not specified. It is also unclear how much of the reported growth came from the partnership or from other parts of Optum’s home health operations. UnitedHealth’s comments about improved access and strong demand were not accompanied by quantified access measures or outcome comparisons.
The company attributed Optum Health’s revenue decline to fewer value-based care patients in markets where it lacked sufficient presence to sustain clinicians. The earnings-call information does not state how quickly it expects those markets to recover, whether clinician capacity will change, or how home health expansion will affect the division’s results.
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Expansion Plans Into 2027
UnitedHealth leaders said they expect some of the programs discussed on the call to expand inside 2027, including offerings tied to post-acute care risk. The company did not specify which markets will see expansion first, how many additional patients it intends to serve or whether the 10% home health visit growth rate is expected to continue.
Further detail may come in subsequent earnings updates or company disclosures about the payer partnership, home health volumes and Optum Health’s performance. Until then, the confirmed picture is limited to UnitedHealth’s reported increase in visits, its description of home health as a strong-performing service and its stated aim to manage care across post-acute settings.
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Key Questions
What did UnitedHealth report about Optum’s home health visits?
UnitedHealth said Optum’s home health visits increased 10% over the past year. The company did not provide the total number of visits or a market-by-market breakdown.
What is Optum’s post-acute care partnership?
Optum Health CEO Krista Nelson said a partnership with one of Optum’s payers expanded the company’s ability to manage risk across care from an inpatient hospital stay through skilled nursing and home health. The payer was not named, and the company did not release financial or scale details.
Did Optum Health’s revenue rise with home health visits?
No. UnitedHealth reported Optum Health revenue of $22.9 billion in the third quarter, down 10% year over year. The company attributed the decline to fewer value-based care patients in markets where Optum lacked enough presence to sustain clinicians. It did not say how home health affected revenue.
What did UnitedHealth say may happen in 2027?
UnitedHealthcare President Robert Hunter said the company expects relevant programs to expand inside 2027. UnitedHealth did not provide specific expansion locations, targets or dates.
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