GE to Invest $6B in Health Care Initiatives

General Electric announced May 7 it will invest $3 billion over the next six years in health care innovation. The company also said it would will commit $2 billion of financing and $1 billion in related GE technology and content to improve health care IT and health in rural and underserved areas.

The GE Healthymagination program will tap companywide capabilities, including GE Healthcare, GE Capital, GE Water, NBC Universal, the GE Global Research Center and the GE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GE.

To read about Intel and GE's $250 million joint investment in health care IT, click here.

"Health care is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues," GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement. "Health care needs new solutions. We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better health care to more people at a lower cost."

Immelt said the goal of the initiative is to achieve a 15 percent cost savings in health care procedures and processes with GE technologies and services; increase by 15 percent people's access to services and technologies essential for good health care; and improve quality and efficiency by 15 percent for customers through simplifying and refining health care procedures and standards of care.

"Healthymagination is our business strategy that seeks to help people live healthier lives, support customer success and help GE grow," Immelt said. "This reflects the new opportunities we see in health care. Our newest innovations—low-cost digital x-ray machines, portable ultrasounds, more affordable cardiac equipment—will save costs for doctors, hospitals, the government, families and businesses. This will help level the playing field in health care."