As health system dealmaking stays steady in 2026, Integris Health is joining Risant Health, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization established by Kaiser Permanente in 2023, to accelerate value-based care.
Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Integris operates a network of 10 acute care and 10 specialty hospitals, clinics, and urgent care centers staffed by 13,000 employees across the state.
The announcement follows a Vizient report showing hospital and health system transaction announcements in the third quarter of this year matched the same period last year. The report, published by the Irving, Texas-based healthcare performance improvement company Vizient, also pointed to continued interest in larger strategic partnerships.
But Integris CEO Timothy Pehrson said the agreement differs from a conventional merger.
“This is not a traditional merger. Integris Health is not being integrated into Risant Health. Risant Health is integrating capabilities around Integris Health,” said Pehrson in an email to MedCity News.
Under the agreement, Integris will retain its name, mission, leadership team, and medical staff. It also plans to continue working with other health plans, provider organizations, and independent physicians.
The arrangement is intended to give Integris access to resources it would struggle to build independently, Pehrson said.
“Risant Health’s efforts to advance value-based care will offer Integris Health patients access to more robust health management technology, tools, and programs that are proven to create better health outcomes,” he said. “Risant Health will help Integris Health achieve its existing mission of partnering with people to live healthier lives, but at a faster pace.”
Risant also offers financial resources, purchasing efficiencies, and shared technology and services to support value-based care. Value-based care ties payment to patient outcomes rather than the volume of services delivered, hopefully resulting in a system which more thoroughly supports patients’ long-term health.
Integris would become Risant’s third health system, joining Geisinger, a Pennsylvania-based health system headquartered in Danville, and Cone Health, a nonprofit health system based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In an announcement last week, Risant highlighted operational improvements at both organizations with the implementation of new tools and workflows. According to data through May of this year, patients at the Geisinger Community Medical Center emergency department experienced a 60% reduction in wait time to admission after the rollout of its Care Without Delay initiative. Meanwhile, data through June 2026 showed that Cone Health clinicians spent nearly 14% less time on clinical notes per patient encounter after the introduction of an ambient clinical documentation tool. Geisinger has reported that the improvements since joining Risant have translated into a 1% boost in operating margins.
Pehrson said Integris Health is eager to apply Risant’s operational solutions without losing its local identity or the oversight of its pre-existing board.
“The improvements that Geisinger and Cone Health have begun to see around challenges that the entire health care industry is experiencing – emergency department boarding, physician burnout, delays to specialty care access – are very exciting,” he said. “We look forward to implementing the value-based platform’s solutions and anticipate similar improvements that our patients will experience as improved health outcomes and high-quality care when and where they need it.”
