After less than six months in his role as president of health care delivery at CVS Health, Dr. Amar Desai is returning to UnitedHealth Group as the new CEO of Optum Health.
The shift in leadership comes as Optum Health is growing its presence in the home health and hospice market. The company recently acquired two of the largest providers in the space – LHC Group and Amedisys Inc. – with price tags of $6 billion and more than $3.7 billion, respectively.
In his role as Optum’s CEO, Dr. Desai will oversee operations of the company’s nearly 135,000 employees that provide home health, hospice and other services to 103 million patients nationwide.
“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,” Dr. Desai said in a LinkedIn post. “When this is done every day across our enterprise, we have the opportunity to meaningfully impact how care is delivered and experienced in the U.S. — one patient, one family, one neighborhood at a time.”
Before joining CVS Health in October 2022, Dr. Desai served as president and CEO of Optum Pacific West, leading Optum’s care delivery organizations throughout California, Oregon and Washington. In April 2023, Dr. Desai joined UnitedHealth Group as executive-in-residence. Now, Dr. Desai will take the helm of the entire company, replacing Dr. Wyatt Decker, who held the position for nearly five years before stepping down from the role. Dr. Decker will now serve as chief physician of UnitedHealth Group.
In recent months, Optum Health’s executive turnover rate has been high, with 11 C-suite leaders and divisional leaders exiting their roles since March 2023, including Optum Health’s senior vice president and Chief AI Officer Dennis Chornenky and president and COO John Prince, who joined the board of directors for MultiPlan.
