Introduction 39 2021 Sustainability Report A Modern, High-Performing Health System Our People and Culture Environmental Health Responsible Business Practices Performance Data Advancing value-based care delivery Our work to improve health care affordability begins with advancing a value-based system that incentivizes providers to deliver high-quality, coordinated care — improving outcomes and experiences and lowering costs. UnitedHealth Group’s care delivery business is focused on advancing an aligned, reliable organization that puts clinical quality and patient safety at the center of everything we do. It starts with a commitment to a sustainable, engaged, high-performing workforce that is continuously learning and improving. We are also working to leverage new insights, best practices and innovation to help improve value and total cost of care, and to achieve our goal of a best-in-class quality care model for our members and patients. Through the combined capabilities of UnitedHealthcare and Optum, we’re helping care providers move toward a truly value-based system of care so they can focus on what’s most important: their patients’ health. Optum Health is at the center of accelerating that transformation from a fee-for-service to a value-based system of care delivery. Optum Health serves more than 2.2 million people through value-based care arrangements, where providers are paid based on the quality of care they deliver rather than the volume of services. By integrating primary, specialty, urgent, post-acute, behavioral and ambulatory care, Optum physicians care for the whole person, leading to 25% fewer hospital readmissions. Our work to lower the cost of care is particularly impactful in the Medicare Advantage program, which serves an increasingly diverse and clinically complex population, where more than half of older adults live on less than $24,500 per year. Studies show that older adults in Medicare Advantage save 40% in out-of-pocket costs compared to fee-for-service Medicare, with better health outcomes. Additionally, Medicare Advantage provides comparable benefits to fee-for-service Medicare at over 20% lower medical costs. In our highest performing Medicare Advantage markets, medical costs are more than 30% lower than fee-for-service Medicare. 35% lower costs. 33% fewer days in the hospital. 40% less emergency department use. 111% growth among diverse populations in Medicare Advantage enrollment since 2013. Compared to fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage members served by Optum Health physicians in value-based arrangements saw