This paper focuses on Grand Valley Health Plan, which has served the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan area for nearly 30 years as a regional, for-profit integrated delivery system, specializing in primary care with a guiding focus on wellness and prevention. Though Grand Valley is a very small-scale health plan and delivery system, it has achieved some of the best results in the nation. A team approach to primary care allows patients to have a high level of access at a low cost of care.
This case is comprised of three parts. The first section recounts Grand Valley Health Plan’s (GVHP) history and its longstanding commitment to its integrated system of health care delivery since its inception in 1982 as a staff-model HMO. The second section examines Grand Valley Health Plan today, highlighting current innovative practices with disruptive potential. The third section evaluates key lessons for other systems working to move toward integration as well as consider future paths the organization may pursue as it continues to strive for innovation as a small-scale health plan in a challenging local economy.
Disruptive innovations in health care have the potential to decrease costs while improving both the quality and accessibility of care. This is one in a series of Pioneer-funded case studies by the Innosight Institute that uses disruptive innovation theory to examine integrated delivery systems and aims to identify the critical factors necessary to achieve increased quality, reduced cost, and access improvements.