STAT January 17, 2024
The failure of Geisinger Health System, which lost $842 million in 2022 and disappeared into a new Kaiser subsidiary called Risant, sent shockwaves through the health care community in the spring of 2023. Founded in 1919, Geisinger was in the vanguard of the so-called “value-based care” movement. It sponsored a regionally significant 600,000-member health plan and served as the home of an exceptionally high-quality 1,600-person multispecialty medical group. While Covid-related financial pressures, fateful management decisions, and troubled regional economic conditions all contributed to Geisinger’s demise, federal health policy may have played a crucial role — and it could bring down other multispecialty groups in 2024 and beyond.
Geisinger is only the latest member of an elite group of large regional...