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Is Risant's Big VBC Move Bold Enough for Healthcare?

Analysis  |  By Eric Wicklund  
   October 21, 2024

HLTH 2024 kicked off Sunday in Vegas with a pledge to go boldly forth with innovation. But in a city known for its splashy promises, it's the details that will matter.

Scalability and sustainability are two of the primary barriers to healthcare innovation. A great tool or strategy won't succeed if it can't expand past the small pilot and prove itself across a larger network or population.

As HLTH 2024 kicked off this week in Las Vegas, healthcare executives and vendors anted in on the optimism that accompanies an event focused on innovation.

But behind the glitz and glamour and the celebrities gracing the main stage, that question remains: What new idea really will take hold and change a struggling industry for the better? And what hard questions should executives be asking themselves as they evaluate each new technology and strategy?

For Kaiser Permanente Chair and CEO Greg Adams, that answer may lie in Risant Health, the company launched a year ago to drive value-based healthcare by creating a national network of high-performing health systems.

"Our healthcare system is not living up to its full potential," he said during a main stage interview to kick off HLTH. "It's time for us to lead. It's time for us to be bold. It's time for us to take risks."

But what—and how—will those risks result in sustained success?

For Risant Health, the idea is to acquire health systems and create a national network that can apply value-based concepts at scale. Risant has already gathered in Geisinger and Cone Health (in which KP plans to invest a hefty $1 billion), and Adams outlined on Sunday the company's continuing quest to pull five or six community health systems into the fold by 2026.

Adams emphasized they aren't looking to bail out a struggling network—a hint to the ongoing M&A activity that is seeing large health systems swallow up smaller hospitals, a tactic that has its successes and its Steward Health Care fiascos. Kaiser Permanente, one of the handful of healthcare organizations that includes both providers and health plans, wants to acquire health systems that are doing OK on their own and moving forward with value-based care strategies.

This, Adams, said, is about optimization, and putting into play strategies that many health networks are talking about but not really embracing.

Adams Said Risant Health has helped Geisinger realize a 1% improvement in its cost structure in six months, and he anticipates an improvement of 2% to 3% for partner health systems over a year. More importantly, he said, those in the Risant Health orbit will have access to guidelines, care pathways and other tools aimed at reducing costs, boosting outcomes and improving workflows. He noted Kaiser Permanente is getting ready to roll out more than 200 primary care guidelines to its own provider network, all aimed at giving care teams an established set of best practices.

Now that kind of optimism is common at an event like HLTH, where cool ideas like food as medicine, primary and behavioral care integration, genomic medicine, hospital at home and using AI to reduce heart attacks and identify and treat cancers at an early stage are discussed at length on stages, in the exhibit hall and in the hallways of the Venetian.

The trick is to move beyond all the talk. Many a great idea has been given the spotlight in past events, only to gradually fade away because it can't be scaled or sustained. And the concept isn't entirely new. General Catalyst launched HATCo roughly last year and earlier this year acquired Summa Health under the idea of creating a "proof of concept" for VBC. Just this month, four significant health systems announced the formation of Longitude Health, with the goal of bringing transformative ideas to scale.

Adams is coming into this with the numbers and the pledge, fortified by HLTH's theme this year of being bold, to be a front-runner in transformative thinking. The challenge will lie in understanding and implementing a value-based care strategy at a time when "value" is a debated concept.

As with anything at HLTH, the idea is great, and over the next two days there will be plenty of discussion about this and other lofty goals. The key will be to answer the hard questions that come up and define success at a time when so much of healthcare is just a struggle to move forward. That's what being bold is all about.

Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

An estimated 12,000 people are expected to attend HLTH this week, where they'll discuss a wide range of innovative healthcare ideas, but is it all just talk?

Kaiser Permanente Chair and CEO Greg Adams kicked things off on the Main Stage with an aggressive strategy for Risant Health, outlining plans to acquire five or six community health systems by 2026.

The plan aims to create a national platform to expand value-based care, targeting key pain points of scalability and sustainability.


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