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About Kaiser Permanente Kaiser
Permanente (KP) has a long and proud
history as an innovator in health-care delivery. Today,
KP is America's largest not-for-profit health maintenance
organization, serving 8.4 million members in nine states and
the District of Columbia. As an integrated health-care delivery
system, KP organizes and provides or coordinates patient care,
including preventive care and screening diagnostics; hospital
and medical services; and pharmacy services. KP has 11,000
physicians, 128,000 employees, 29 medical centers, and 423
medical offices.
Three entities operate under the Kaiser Permanente trademark:
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.; Kaiser Foundation Hospitals;
and the Permanente Medical Groups. Through an exclusive contractual
relationship with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., the
Permanente Medical Groups provide or arrange for the medical
care necessary to serve Kaiser Foundation Health Plan members.
As a not-for-profit organization, KP is driven by the needs
of its members and its social obligation to provide benefit
for the communities in which it operates, rather than the
needs of shareholders. Social benefit activities include assistance
to the uninsured and special populations; training new health-care
professionals through residency
and fellowship programs; introducing new delivery and
financing methods into the health-care arena at large; and
through clinical research efforts, developing and sharing
better ways to care for patients.
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| Historical Milestones |
| 1930s |
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Sidney R. Garfield, MD, operates the Contractors General Hospital
on the Mojave Desert, providing medical care to workers on the
Colorado River Aqueduct. |
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Dr. Garfield establishes a prepayment health plan for workers.
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Industrialist Henry Kaiser persuades Dr. Garfield
to set up a group-practice prepayment plan for Grand Coulee
Dam construction workers. Membership is later opened to workers
and families. |
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| 1940s |
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At the request of the Kaisers, Dr. Garfield establishes
group-practice prepayment plans for workers and their families
at Kaiser-managed shipyards (San Francisco Bay Area and Vancouver,
WA) and at a Kaiser steel mill (Fontana, CA). |
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Dr. Garfield opens health plans to the community marking true
beginning of Kaiser Permanente system. |
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| 1950s |
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Kaiser Permanente is reorganized to more effectively
accommodate the concept of partnership between the professions
of medicine and management, and also to provide individual physicians
with a financial stake in the Program's future. This reorganization
created the framework for Kaiser Permanente's present structure.
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Kaiser Permanente establishes region in Hawaii. |
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| 1960s |
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Membership reaches 2 million. |
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Kaiser Permanente establishes regions in Colorado and Ohio. |
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| 1970s |
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Membership reaches 3million. |
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All Kaiser Permanente regions become federally qualified
HMOs. |
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| 1980s |
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Kaiser Permanente acquires a nonprofit group-practice prepayment
plan in the Washington, D.C., area. Region comprises Maryland,
Virginia, and the District of Columbia. |
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Kaiser Permanente establishes regions in Georgia. |
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Membership reaches 5 million. |
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| 1990s
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Fiftieth anniversary of Kaiser Permanente as a public health
plan. |
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Kaiser Permanente purchases portion of the assets of Humana
Group Health, Inc., Washington, D.C. |
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Affiliation established with Group Health Cooperative of Puget
Sound. |
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Kaiser Permanente and the AFL-CIO agree to establish
a historic partnership between labor and management –
the first of its kind in health care. The Partnership is designed
to improve the quality of health care for Kaiser Permanente
members and their communities, provide employees with the maximum
possible employment and income security, and involve employees
and their unions in decision making. |
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| Today |
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Today, Kaiser Permanente serves 8.4 million members
in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon,
Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. |
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