Kaiser Permanente spends billions a year on goods and services, from surgical supplies to facilities construction to marketing. If you sell something a large integrated health system buys, it is a real account worth pursuing. The catch is that Kaiser does almost none of its sourcing through cold email. It buys through a single vendor portal, and its supplier diversity work runs under a program with a name most people get wrong.
Here is how registration actually works, which certifications matter, and what to do after you have an account so you are not just a row in a database.
The program is called Impact Spending, not "supplier diversity"Kaiser rebranded its supplier diversity function as Impact Spending. The older name still floats around in PDFs and press coverage, and the legacy site at supplierdiversity.kp.org still resolves, but the current program and the team you want to reach use Impact Spending. If you call asking about "the supplier diversity program," you are not wrong, you are just using last year's vocabulary.
The program's stated purpose is to direct Kaiser's purchasing toward small, local, and diverse businesses so those dollars stay in the communities its members live in. Kaiser publicly committed to increasing spending with minority-owned, women-owned, local, and employee-owned businesses by at least $1 billion by 2025, and has talked about spending roughly a billion dollars annually with minority- and women-owned firms. Independent scoring puts its diverse spend around 8 percent of total procurement in recent data, which is mid-pack for a system its size. Useful context: there is room in the budget, and the program is measured, so buyers have a reason to find new diverse vendors.
Step one: register on the Stars SMP vendor portalEvery prospective supplier registers in the same place. Kaiser uses a third-party supplier management platform called Stars SMP, hosted at kaiserpermanente.starssmp.com. This is the front door. Registering does not get you a contract and does not guarantee anyone will call. What it does is put your company information where Kaiser's category managers and buyers can find you when they run a supplier search for what you sell.
To complete registration you will need a few things ready:
- Your Federal Tax ID (or Social Security number for a sole proprietor).
- Basic company information: legal name, address, the products or services you provide, and your NAICS or commodity categories.
- Proof of at least two years in business. Kaiser asks for a track record that signals financial stability, so brand-new entities can struggle to qualify here.
- Your diversity certification documents, uploaded to validate ownership. More on which ones below.
- Marketing materials, including a capability statement if you have one.
- Agreement to Kaiser's Vendor Code of Conduct.
Kaiser asks suppliers to update their registration annually. An out-of-date profile is the quiet way good vendors fall off the radar, so treat the renewal like a calendar event, not an afterthought.
Which certifications Kaiser recognizesKaiser sources diverse suppliers through the standard national certifying bodies. Based on Kaiser and partner statements, the program recognizes certifications from:
- NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) for minority business enterprises, MBE.
- WBENC (Women's Business Enterprise National Council) for women-owned firms, WBE.
- NVBDC (National Veteran Business Development Council) for veteran and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses.
- NGLCC (National LGBT Chamber of Commerce) for LGBT-owned businesses.
- Disability:IN for disability-owned businesses.
Kaiser has also said it is widening its definition beyond MBEs to include small business enterprises, veteran-owned, women-owned, and HUBZone firms, which matches the direction most large healthcare systems are moving. It works with local BIPOC-serving chambers and regional councils too, so a regional NMSDC or WBENC affiliate certification carries weight, not just the national stamp.
One honest caveat for 2026: corporate diversity programs across the country have been recalibrating language and structure under legal and political pressure. Kaiser's procurement-focused program has kept running and kept its portal open, but specifics like reporting categories and outreach event cadence can shift. Confirm the current setup on supplier.kp.org before you build a pitch around any one label.
If you are not certified yet, certification is usually the highest-return step you can take before approaching a buyer here. It is the credential their system filters on. CertifyAll handles the filing across the relevant bodies once, so you are not running five separate applications by hand. And if you want to see which other corporations recognize the same NMSDC or WBENC credential, our corporate program directory is the fastest way to map where one certification opens more than one door.
The Tier II path: sell to Kaiser's primesNot every road into a system this large is a direct contract. Kaiser runs a Tier II program, which is its term for subcontracting through its existing large suppliers. Prime suppliers that are not themselves classified as small businesses, and that hold contracts above $550,000 (or $1 million for construction), have to report their spending with diverse subcontractors to Kaiser quarterly.
That reporting requirement creates demand you can use. Kaiser's primes need diverse subcontractors to hit the numbers they report. If a direct contract feels out of reach today, identify the large firms already supplying Kaiser in your category and pitch them as a Tier II subcontractor. It is often a shorter sales cycle than landing a prime contract cold, and it builds the past performance that makes a direct contract believable later.
What "registered" does and doesn't doRegistering on Stars SMP is necessary, not sufficient. Kaiser is clear that signing up gives its decision-makers access to your information during supplier searches, and that is the entire point of the database. It does not put you in a queue for a callback.
So treat registration as step one of outreach, not the whole plan:
- Make your profile findable. Fill in every commodity code and capability field. Buyers search by category, and a thin profile does not surface. Write the description the way a buyer would search, not the way your marketing deck reads.
- Get your capability statement tight before you upload it. When a category manager pulls your record, it should read as a serious, specific vendor, not a generalist. A clear capability statement is the single document that decides whether you advance.
- Go to the outreach events. Kaiser publishes a calendar of supplier outreach events and matchmaking sessions through Impact Spending. Showing up is how you move from a database row to a name a buyer remembers.
- Use your certifying body's network. NMSDC and WBENC affiliates run matchmaking with their corporate members, and Kaiser participates. A warm introduction through your regional council often beats a portal submission.
If you are starting from zero, the order looks like this. Get certified through the body that fits your ownership, NMSDC, WBENC, NVBDC, NGLCC, or Disability:IN. Build a capability statement that names exactly what you sell and the credential you hold. Register on Stars SMP at kaiserpermanente.starssmp.com and fill the profile out completely. Then work the relationships: attend Impact Spending outreach events, pitch Kaiser's existing primes on Tier II subcontracting, and use your council's matchmaking to get in front of an actual buyer.
The portal gets you into the system. Certifications, a sharp capability statement, and showing up to the events are what turn a database entry into a purchase order.
For the wider playbook on getting into corporate supplier diversity programs, not just Kaiser's, read our guide to breaking into corporate supplier diversity programs. And if you want corporate buyers to find you the way Kaiser's category managers do, list your business in our supplier directory.
