Kaiser Permanente is known for its emphasis on value-based care, which prioritizes patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness over the volume of services provided. The IDN combines health insurance with healthcare services. This means that it operates hospitals, outpatient facilities, and employs its own physicians. Understanding this integrated model is crucial because it influences purchasing decisions and the implementation of medical devices across various facilities and departments.

Account executives need to align their medical devices with a focus on value-based care, demonstrating how their products can improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and integrate seamlessly into Kaiser's existing systems and protocols.

Nestor Jarquin, Strategic Sourcing Sr. Category Manager, Surgical, Kaiser Permanente told the Journal of Healthcare Contracting the IDN is taking a holistic perspective and looking at utilization, instead of purchase. “With our collaborative model working with clinicians from beginning to the end, we share the data, the category, and have a discussion about the opportunities. Quite naturally in those discussions, clinicians realize that they wish we would use more of this than that, or that we used this technique instead of that technique. So, what we’ve launched over the last few years is a new process called value-based use, where we can look at a category and drive efficiencies that improve quality and reduce cost.”

Kaiser Permanente’s supply chain team is also taking a close look at utilization, beyond purchase costs, because quite honestly, your purchase data is an after effect, he said. “It’s the utilization in the OR that is where your cost is – what is brought into the OR and what is used in a particular case. The alignment with our clinicians and physicians allows us to effectively pursue these utilization opportunities.”