Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente was in the middle of a strategic planning process when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, CEO Greg Adams said during a keynote speech June 13 at the AHIP 2023 conference.
"There's something about COVID that kind of peeled back the constructs and allowed us to look pretty candidly at ourselves and healthcare against the country," he said. "One of the things that we came to terms with was as good as we are, as much as we love our model, it's not the only way to lead and be in a value-based organization. And we believe that in terms of what we sometimes call our secret sauce — or how we do what we do, and there's so many components of that — that we can bring those forward into other settings, in this case in the community health systems.
Kaiser announced on April 26 it agreed to acquire Geisinger Health in a deal that will make the Danville, Pa.-based health system the first to join Risant Health. The new nonprofit aims to expand and accelerate the adoption of value-based care in "diverse, multipayer, multiprovider, community-based health system environments." Risant plans to acquire four or five more health systems. Kaiser said in a May financial statement it expects the Geisinger acquisition to close in 2024, pending regulatory approval.
"One of the things I've learned since we made the announcement is how many regional community health systems are out there that have been on a 20-year, 15-, a 25-year journey, to commit to community health, to be integrated, to own value-based care, and they're struggling and just trying to do it on their own," Mr. Adams said.
"So the vision is that how do we bring so much of what we have into those community health systems and help them through our tools, our proven practices, our evidence-based approach, actually rise, reach up and stay connected to the community and achieve the kind of outcomes and the kind of health that we are we've achieved and we're committed to?"
He said Risant Health is "not about becoming Kaiser Permanente."
"It's a completely other organization," he said. "It's about bringing the expertise of Kaiser Permanente into community settings, partnering with the health plan, partnering with the multiprovider groups, etc., and moving value-based care, population health, community health forward in this country. There was a need for a strong, solid … not-for-profit alternative to the disruption that we're seeing."