Geisinger & Cone in Tow, Risant Plans Continued Expansion, Wants Learnings to Go Both Ways

At the ViVe 2025 Conference, industry leaders explored how Risant Health is working to reshape value-based care by bringing Kaiser Permanente’s model to a broader range of health systems. The discussion highlighted the challenges of scaling value-based care beyond a single integrated system while preserving local autonomy and adapting to varied payment structures.

“If you’re a Kaiser Permanente member, you tend to be healthier, live longer, and have a lower disease burden,” said David Grandy, Chief Product Officer at Risant Health. “But today, most Americans don’t have access to that kind of integrated care.”

Risant Health was established in 2023 by Kaiser Permanente to expand the benefits of an integrated care model beyond its traditional footprint. The organization is focused on acquiring and partnering with high-performing, mission-driven, nonprofit health systems that are already committed to value-based care. Geisinger was the first to join. Later, Cone Health was acquired. Grandy emphasized that Risant is not about imposing Kaiser Permanente’s model but rather adapting its best practices to diverse health systems across the country.

Challenge of a Multi-payer Environment

“We can’t just replicate Kaiser’s solutions as they are,” Grandy said. “We have to contextualize them for a multi-payer environment and for different types of physician relationships—whether they’re employed doctors, in clinically integrated networks, or fully independent.”

At the core of the strategy is Risant’s Value-Based Platform (VBP), a technology and services framework designed to integrate with different health systems while maintaining their identities. “The VBP is the engine that makes Risant work,” Grandy explained. “It allows us to layer technology, services, and solutions on top of existing organizations to accelerate their journey to value.”

Geisinger’s Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Dr. Ben Hohmuth, acknowledged the apprehension that often comes with acquisitions but stressed that the transition has been smoother than expected. “With any acquisition, there’s apprehension—people worry, ‘Are we becoming Kaiser?’” Hohmuth said. “But six months in, people realized their badges still say Geisinger, the name on the building hasn’t changed, and we’re still who we’ve always been. At the same time, we’re figuring out what it means to be part of Risant.”

1, 2, 3 New Technology Products

A key milestone in the transition was the launch of three new technology products in 2024, with more in development. The first two—an ambient clinical assistant and a value-based care guide—were clinician-facing, directly impacting workflow efficiency and care coordination. “The moment our clinical staff started using these solutions, they saw the value,” Hohmuth said. “That created excitement. And just before the end of the year, we released our first patient-facing product, Intelligent Triage.”

Even in its early stages, Risant’s impact at Geisinger has been significant. “With the ambient clinical assistant, we’ve seen providers gain about 35 minutes back in their day,” Hohmuth reported. “In primary care, we’ve seen a 70% reduction in perceived work outside of work and a 55% decrease in self-reported burnout. That’s huge.”

The value-based care guide, another component, integrates directly into the EHR and provides clinicians with a structured approach to managing common conditions. “It’s built around 510 common clinical conditions and is designed to help primary care doctors manage cases more comprehensively,” Hohmuth said. “The goal is to improve access, decrease total cost of care, and speed up resolution for patients, so they’re not being bounced around between specialists.” Currently, 210 clinical topics are live, with the full set of 510 expected to be integrated within months.

Navigating Diverse Reimbursement Structures

A significant challenge for Risant is adapting to the fragmented nature of U.S. healthcare payments. Unlike Kaiser Permanente, which operates under a single-payer model, Risant must navigate diverse reimbursement structures.

“Managing incentives across different payers is the biggest challenge,” Hohmuth said. “At Geisinger, about half of our health plan members receive care outside our system, and about half of the patients in our clinics aren’t covered by our health plan. So we’ve had to operate in both fee-for-service and value-based care worlds.”

The solution, he explained, is to focus on reducing unnecessary costs while improving patient access. “We have more demand for our services than we can meet,” Hohmuth said. “If we reduce waste—whether that’s an unnecessary hospital admission, a redundant test, or an avoidable specialist visit—there’s always another patient who needs that slot. So, if we drive down the total cost of care, not just for our members but for the broader clinical enterprise, that creates a catalyst for payer alignment.”

Grandy added that demonstrating real-world outcomes is key to gaining payer buy-in. “Payers agree on the goals—improve quality, lower costs, and enhance experience,” he said. “If we can show that our solutions deliver those outcomes, we can have meaningful conversations about risk-sharing.”

What’s Next

Looking ahead, Risant plans to acquire five or six more health systems over the next few years. Grandy emphasized that the organization is looking for “a coalition of the willing”—health systems that are already committed to value-based care and want to accelerate their transformation. “These are organizations that have been in the value-based game for a while. They know what works and what doesn’t. They want to learn from like-minded systems and share what they’ve learned.”

In 10 years, Grandy envisions Risant as both a direct operator of value-based health systems and an influencer in the broader industry. “Even if we have five or six systems in Risant, there are still hundreds of others on the same journey. My hope is that our solutions inspire other health systems to take pages from our playbook. If we prove this works at scale, we can drive transformation across nonprofit health systems nationwide.”

Take it Away

• Value-based care delivers results – Geisinger physicians using Risant’s ambient clinical assistant report major reductions in documentation time and burnout.
• Partnerships preserve local identity – Risant aims to expand Kaiser’s model while ensuring acquired health systems maintain their name and culture.
• Scaling requires payer flexibility – Unlike Kaiser Permanente’s single-payer model, Risant must navigate diverse payment landscapes while promoting value-based care.
• Physician adoption is critical – Clinicians need solutions that integrate seamlessly into workflows and reduce administrative burdens.
• More acquisitions are coming – Risant plans to expand to five or six more health systems, creating a network committed to value-based care.

As Grandy put it, “This is about more than just improving outcomes—it’s about proving that a different way of delivering healthcare can work across the country.”

Related Content

Treating the Whole Patient: How the Mayo-Kaiser Partnership Aims to Redefine Care