Public hearing requested on Geisinger-Risant’s request to modify $100M insurance conditions

WILKES-BARRE — A coalition of community members and health care workers in Pennsylvania is calling for a public hearing to ensure transparency around Geisinger-Risant’s “Request for Modification” of its insurance conditions.

The coalition, alongside Action Together NEPA and SEIU Healthcare PA, is asking the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to hold the hearing and also ensure that parent corporation Kaiser Permanente uses its $82 billion in net worth to freeze health insurance costs for working people struggling to afford care. The group said this would help fulfill Kaiser’s commitment to invest at least $2 billion locally when it took over Geisinger through Risant in 2024.

In addition, the coalition is asking the Insurance Department to obtain clarity on exactly how Geisinger-Risant intends to use the $100 million it would gain access to from the modification. Coalition members say a freeze on insurance costs would help protect the health and economic security of the entire Northeast Pennsylvania region.

According to a news release from the coalition, Geisinger-Risant filed its request on Jan. 16, asking to reduce the amount its insurance companies are required to hold in reserve, called “risk-based capital.” As a condition of approving Kaiser’s original takeover of Geisinger through Risant, the coalition said the Insurance Department required Geisinger Health Plan to maintain risk-based capital of at least 350% and Geisinger Indemnity Insurance Co. and Geisinger Quality Options to maintain risk-based capital of at least 400% for five years. The coalition further claims that the corporations then have to maintain at least 350% until 2039. Geisinger’s modification request is to instead require all three insurance corporations to maintain a risk-based capital level of 300%, which would allow access to the $100 million.

Geisinger did not respond when asked for comment.

“Our request to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department is clear: we need transparency, clarity, and accountability from Geisinger-Risant and Kaiser, and we need a freeze on health care costs for the hardworking residents of Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, executive director of Action Together NEPA. “In the past decade, we’ve seen insurance and health care corporations become much bigger and more powerful, gaining a greater and greater ability to drive up prices. Working people are suffering right now, and the Insurance Department should step up to make sure that these huge corporations are using their vast resources to hold down costs, not continue raising them.”

Coalition members say that Geisinger-Risant and Kaiser have more than enough resources to freeze residents’ health insurance costs. They claim Geisinger had $9 billion in revenue, $47 million in profits, and $4.8 billion in net assets in 2025; Kaiser had $127 billion in revenue, $9.3 billion in profits, and $82 billion in net assets in 2025.