How Kaiser Permanente’s Acquisition of Geisinger Could Drive More Integrated Post-Acute Care

California-based health care group Kaiser Permanente on Wednesday announced its plans to acquire Pennsylvania-based, Geisinger Health, to form a new healthcare entity in a deal that aims to expand value-based care access across the U.S., with potential implications for how care is delivered to older adults.

The new entity, Risant Health, will be headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Geisinger’s CEO, Dr. Jaewon Ryu, will serve as Risant’s head once the deal is closed. 

Risant had not replied to Skilled Nursing News’ request for comment as of press time. But in 2021, Ryu spoke with Aging Media Network — SNN’s parent company — about his vision for the future of health care for aging Americans.

“What we’re focused on for the next chapter for Geisinger is to build clinical programs and take them to where the people are; whether that’s in the home or closer into the communities, in the clinic setting and otherwise, getting upstream of these clinical conditions so that before [someone] needs to be hospitalized or go for an ED visit, we’re able to address them in an easier environment,” Ryu said.

Geisinger has collaborated with senior living operator Clover Management and REIT Welltower (NYSE: WELL) through its senior-focused 65 Forward primary care clinics specifically geared toward providing primary care and wraparound services to support seniors’ long-term wellbeing.

Kaiser intends to bolster Risant beyond Geisinger by acquiring additional “like-minded, nonprofit, value-oriented community-based health systems,” the company said in a press release.

Health systems that join Risant Health will continue on as regional or community-based organizations.

Terms of the deal were not released. But it’s clear that Risant could have an outsized effect on the way health care is delivered to older adults, and patients of all ages, given the scale of organizations involved and the ambitions for growth. Kaiser Permanente reported $94.5 billion in revenue last year, and maintains a network of nearly 40 hospitals and 12.6 million insurance plan members, the Wall Street Journal reported. Geisinger reported about $7 billion in revenue last year and 600,000 health plan members, according to the WSJ.

Risant’s goal is to “expand and accelerate the adoption of value-based care in diverse, multi-payer, multi-provider, community-based health system environments,” Geisinger noted in a press release.

By linking up with Risant Health, health systems would get resources and support through the group’s value-based platform, including model design, pharmacy services, consumer digital engagement, health plan product development and purchasing.

Geisinger also will help shape the organization’s strategy and operational model.

“Geisinger will be able to accelerate our vision and continue to invest in new and existing capabilities and facilities, while charting a path for the future of American health care, through Risant Health,” Ryu said in the press release. “Kaiser Permanente and Geisinger share a vision for the future of health care, and as the Risant Health name indicates, we believe by working together we will reach new heights in health care and raise the bar for better health for all communities.”

Ryu has previously expressed a belief that patients have the best outcomes when their care is “as coordinated and integrated as possible.”

“It doesn’t mean it has to all be part of the same organization, but I think that working together on the collaboration and integration is very important,” Ryu said in the Vision Series interview. “I think like-minded organizations that are rooted in that as their north star — what is the best for the patient? — they’re going to eventually align because they see the world similarly.”

Geisinger sold two skilled nursing facilities in 2018. Mountain View Care Center had joined Geisinger as part of the Geisinger Community Medical Center integration while Geisinger Bloomsburg Health Care Center had joined as part of the Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital transaction in 2012.

At the time of the sale, Geisinger’s vice president, Scott Davis, had said that it made fiscal sense to sell off the SNFs.

“Operating skilled nursing facilities successfully requires economies of scale that we just don’t have with only two facilities,” said Davis. “This type of specialized, long-term care has not traditionally been part of Geisinger’s core operations.”

However, Geisinger maintains close ties with skilled nursing facilities in its market areas, EVP and Chief Nurse Executive Janet Tomcavage told SNN last year. At that time, Geisinger was struggling to discharge higher-acuity patients into SNFs, which were dealing with staffing shortages.

Geisinger was collaborating with SNFs to address these challenges, including sending about 20 advanced practitioners to work full-time in independently owned nursing homes.

“Those are the facilities that we send a lot of our patients to for post-acute care,” Tomcavage said. “We are often medical directors in many nursing facilities and I think Geisinger has worked hard in our post-acute network to create relationships with them because we know they’re important.”