Dive Brief:
- Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins Medicine on July 29 announced plans to strengthen their existing collaboration to expand ways to deliver quality care.
- Under the agreement, the organizations said they will share evidence-based best practices, advance population health programs, collaborate on education and research endeavors and explore how they can work together to create better healthcare models for consumers and communities. This includes sharing best practices on the use of electronic medical records.
- Part of the strategic agreement's initial focus is working to strengthen the 15-year relationship between Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States and Suburban Hospital, a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine, "by combining their collective expertise to create an advanced model of care," the organizations said.
Dive Insight:
These are two of the best-known healthcare organizations in the U.S. embarking on a strategic collaboration that joins one giant's academic research and clinical capabilities with the other's population health prowess. As one Kaiser official put it, this is a commitment for the two to work on "tangible projects related to quality, affordability and service."
While the idea of provider/payer collaboration is not new, some observers said Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins, by forging their brands in this way, could have a major impact on shifting healthcare delivery from volume to value. Jay Shiver, a health administration professor at George Mason University and a former executive at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., which is now a part of Johns Hopkins, told the Baltimore Business Journal that the move is "more evolutionary than revolutionary." But, he added, "You’re talking about two of the premier organizations in their domain...This has potential because of who is involved."