UnitedHealth Exec To Run Embattled British National Health Service

An executive at UnitedHealth (UNH) will run the National Health Service in England, effective in April of next year, UnitedHealth and British health officials confirmed this morning.

Simon Stevens, UnitedHealth's president of global health, who previously worked in England under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, will return to run to his native homeland to run NHS effective April 1, 2014. He replaces the controversial Sir David Nicholson.

In an interview last December at the 2012 Forbes Healthcare Summit, Stevens said the cost of medical care can be reduced by 18 percent without harming quality. He was among a key group of UnitedHealth executives rapidly moving the insurer toward transparency and away from paying doctors and hospitals on a fee-for-service basis.

His efforts come with NHS under severe "spending pressures" according to British health officials. His predecessor has been described as the "man with no shame" due to a string of scandals that include reports that doctors and nurses were afraid to speak up about poor care, according to reports this morning in the British press. 

"The next five years are going to be extremely challenging for the NHS, but compassionate high quality care for all is as vital as ever," Stevens said in a statement provided by NHS.

Stevens's supporters said he was up to the task.

From former Obama administration health administrator Dr. Donald Berwick described Stevens as bringing a "unique combination of skills and experiences, with a worldwide perspective, in executive and political leadership, health care delivery reform, financial stewardship, and quality improvement, and, above all, he has a deep and abiding commitment to excellence in the care of patients and families."

"The challenges the NHS faces today are large, as they are in many nations, but much larger is the potential for the NHS to be a model for the world for the pursuit of health care's 'triple aim': better care for all individuals, better health for populations, and lower cost through continual improvement," said Dr. Berwick, a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who is running for governor of Massachusetts. "Simon is superbly equipped to help the NHS realize that potential."

UnitedHealth is among several U.S.-based insurers moving to approaches that include bundled payments as well as aggressively negotiating contracts with doctor practices that operate "patient-centered medical homes" as well as so-called accountable care organizations (ACOs), a rapidly emerging health care delivery system that rewards doctors and hospitals for working together to improve quality and rein in costs.