Renown Health and Kaiser Permanente announced an agreement to jointly own a health insurance plan called Kaiser Permanente Nevada. Pending regulatory approval, Kaiser Permanente Nevada will open enrollment for health plan coverage to employers and northern Nevadans beginning next year.
Dr. Brian Erling, the President and CEO of Renown Health, says partnering Hometown Health - the insurance arm of Renown Health - with the national not-for-profit will afford our community more access to affordable medical care. "This collaboration strengthens our ability to keep care local, while bringing the scale, expertise and innovation of a national leader. Together, we are ensuring that individuals, families and employers across the state have more choices and better coverage." Dr. Erling emphasized Renown's hospitals and clinics will remain unchanged.
Through this joint venture agreement, Kaiser Permanente will acquire a majority interest in Hometown Health. "Kaiser Permanente will be purchasing slightly more than 50% of Hometown Health and will become the majority owner, which allows them to bring all the Kaiser technology, the apps and all of their buying power." Dr. Erling adds the buying power of a company that serves 13 million members in eight states can help with pharmaceuticals - an expensive part of running a health insurance company.
The hope is this joint venture will also be a shot in the arm for the only Nevada-based, not-for-profit health insurance company. Dr. Erling says, "Coming out of the pandemic, the health plan had lost about half our membership which was common around the country."
Hometown Health CEO, Bethany Sexton adds remote work also impacted the insurer. "So employers might have been based here in Reno, but then they had one or two or five or 10 employees who might have been out of the area with all the remote work, and that is a challenging space as a health insurer - when we're domiciled here in the state of Nevada - to be able to offer them something that was a meaningful health plan offering." In an effort to do that, Dr. Erling says, "We needed a large partner that was large enough to make the appropriate investments to bring the technology and the care pathway platforms that, as a smaller regional health insurance company, we struggle with."
Sexton says along with providing greater access to care for our growing population, this partnership will also help employers who are facing rising operational costs. "We all know within health care, employers every day are facing increasing costs on so many fronts - not to mention health plan costs - and it's certainly a goal of the joint venture to make sure we have great value out in the market."
While Renown's hospitals and clinics will remain the same, Dr. Erling says this collaboration will allow for more access to multispecialty care, diagnostic, pharmacy and ancillary services. "The plan is three new clinics in the first three years. All of that growth requires new jobs, so we're really excited for what this will bring to our community."
Greg Adams, the CEO of Kaiser Permanente, has deep roots in northern Nevada. He worked as a nursing leader at Washoe Medical Center before it became Renown. He says it’s “wonderful to be back and to see the remarkable progress, incredible growth and innovation happening here today.”
There will be no immediate changes to Hometown Health/Senior Care Plus plans, networks or points of contact during the transition period through 2026.
Pending approval by the Department of Insurance, Kaiser Permanente Nevada will be contracted exclusively with Renown and will begin offering plans for 2027.
