That can happen. But not really, I think, necessarily the right way to look at it. I wouldn’t look at it that way. I’d see — I really think about it the way we’ve built the home capabilities as a substantial extension of what we’re able to do in the clinical space. And it speaks to the reality of care. People — a lot — not everything happens in the 20 minutes you’re in the clinic, right? A ton of things happen when you’re at home, and making sure that we’ve got care capabilities there, especially for folks who find it difficult to get out of the home or for whatever reason, find it difficult to engage with the system. That’s a super important part of the environment. What I’d say is that, that is resonating super strongly, not just with UnitedHealthcare, but with other payers as well.
And there’s no doubt that this side of the agenda has caught the imagination of other payers, and we’re delighted to see the continued extension of the multi-payer dynamic of OptumHealth and Optum more generally. And this is one of the drivers of that. In fact, during Q4, our external growth rate — revenue growth rate was analogous to our internal growth, or i.e. Optum was growing just as quickly with non-UHC payers as it was with UHC. And that’s a super important signal for the strength of the company. So important area, you’ll continue to hear more about home as we go forward. But I would look at it more as a strengthening as a whole rather than a kind of separate stream in which we would be thinking about it that way. Hopefully, that helps a little bit, Stephen.
And let’s go to the next question.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Rich with Goldman Sachs.
Nathan Rich : The advance rate notice for ’24 will be out in the coming weeks. It’s clearly been well noted that the past few years have kind of been above the historical trend, and know that at some point we could see some moderation. I’d just be curious what your expectations are around that and how you view its relative importance in the context of your overall outlook for the MA market?
Andrew Witty : Nathan, thanks so much. Yes, as you rightly say, obviously, we’re getting close to when we would likely hear the rate notification. And obviously, we don’t know what that’s going to be. I think where we would sit is — we think MA is an incredibly important program for seniors. I think it’s been demonstrated now repeatedly the value that delivers to the individuals, the value it delivers to society. And of course, the way in which seniors are essentially voting to become part of this program just signals how effective it is. We believe that one of the key elements of that effectiveness that we certainly focused on is our ability to deliver stable benefits year in, year out. So I mean bottom line for us is we hope year in, year out, that the rate notice essentially facilitates that and it allows us to continue to deliver that stability.
And we look forward to seeing what that will be, and we’ll work with that once it’s communicated to us. Not much more we can say on that, to be honest, until we obviously get the right notice. So thanks for the question. Next question please?
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Erin Wright with Morgan Stanley.
Erin Wright : On Optum Rx, your near-term Optum Rx targets do imply passing on the savings from biosimilars, but can you detail some of the other levers you have here to drive the strength you’re anticipating? How should we rank those drivers across pharmacy services, versus biosimilar benefits over the next, let’s say, 12 to 18 months?
