Kaiser Permanente Develops Its Health and Wellness Ecosystem
Kaiser Permanente is a leading not-for-profit healthcare provider with 12.4 million members in eight states in the US.5 Digital technologies have been key to enabling an integrated care model that provides members with seamless access to care at low cost. In 2018, the organization delivered thirty-one million prescriptions, fifty-four million lab results, and hundreds of thousands of telehealth visits online. Kaiser Permanente is building a health and wellness ecosystem with digital partners to create value from ecosystems.
Kaiser Permanente partnered with Samsung in 2018 to develop an at-home program that uses digital technologies to guide rehabilitation after a heart attack.6 Kaiser Permanente’s virtual cardiac rehabilitation program, started as a pilot program, is now at scale in Southern California and deployed in Georgia, with almost 7,000 patients enrolled.
The number one priority for the virtual cardiac rehab initiative is creating new value from customers through partnering in the form of increased engagement, resulting in healthier members and more loyalty. Since the program commenced, more than 80 percent of patients in the at-home program have completed rehab, compared to only 50 percent of patients in-clinic. The program has reduced cardiovascular mortality by 27 percent. As a not-for-profit organization, Kaiser Permanente’s primary goal is to provide value for customers through high-quality affordable healthcare.
The second priority is creating new value from operations through partnering. The digital solution has created greater efficiency in healthcare delivery, improving productivity of care delivery staff, and cutting administrative and clinical costs from outcomes such as reduced hospital readmissions. Less than two percent of patients in the at-home program have been readmitted since it started, compared to 30 percent of patients without rehab and 15 percent with in-clinic rehab. Other value created has included ease of enrollment and the elimination of transportation costs and co-pays.
The longer-term opportunity is a go-to destination. Kaiser Permanente is creating a one-stop destination for its members, increasingly including partners outside the organization’s health system. Kaiser Permanente developed and now runs a new, innovative offering in collaboration with ecosystem partner Samsung. The organization tests about a dozen partner programs at any time, including digital health coaching and telehealth, and explores potential collaborations with other technology companies.7 Kaiser Permanente is building the ecosystem selectively and gradually, with targeted applications and alliances, due to the effort needed to scale solutions in clinical settings, complicated by challenges such as integration, training, and data sharing with partners.