Dive Brief:
- The NBA has named Kaiser Permanente as its first-ever healthcare partner in a multi-year deal. As part of the deal, Kaiser Permanente becomes the "Official Health Care Partner of the NBA, WNBA, NBA D-League and USA Basketball," according to reports.
- The deal is Kaiser Permanente's first national partnership with a professional sports league.
- Under terms of the partnership, Kaiser will serve as a medical expert and consultant for the NBA on health and wellness programming. The first partnership event, NBA FIT Live Healthy Week, begins today and runs through January 29.
Dive Insight:
This is a smart partnership on the part of Kaiser. Basketball fans represent a broad base, including many people from under-served communities with healthcare access challenges. Teaming up with the NBA will broaden Kaiser Permanente's reach to all consumers, especially those in less-affluent communities that often lack resources to help them lead healthy lifestyles. The Kaiser-sponsored NBA Fit Live Healthy Week is a solid targeted event where the NBA will help promote healthy living in a grassroots way—a very natural fit with any ongoing population health efforts at Kaiser.
Also, let's face it: Kaiser needs a little good publicity at the moment, after the widely-publicized strike over mental healthcare access last week.