The CEO of Kaiser’s new health network shares why he’s making a bet on a tiny North Carolina hospital system

Outside of North Carolina, most people probably haven’t heard of Cone Health. But the relatively small system has an outsized reputation for keeping locals healthy and out of hospitals, according to the CEO of the health care network that struck a deal to acquire it.

Improving health outcomes is the stated mission of that network, called Risant Health. Kaiser Permanente formed the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit collective of doctors, hospitals, and health insurers last year.

“It’s outpunching its weight class, if you want to put it that way,” Jaewon Ryu, Risant’s CEO, said in an interview with STAT. Ryu was the CEO of Geisinger until it became part of Risant a few months ago.

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