Kaiser Foundation

Kaiser Permanente is a managed care organization that is based in Oakland, California, founded in the year 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. Kaiser Permanente is an association of three separate groups, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and its regional operating organizations, the Permanente Medical Groups and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. In 2006, Kaiser Permanente operates in 9 states and Washington, DC, and is the largest organization of managed care in America. Kaiser Permanente has about 8.8 million members of health, with 156,000 employees, 13,730 physicians, 36 clinics, 400 doctors' offices with annual operating revenue of $ 34.4 billion and net income of 1, 3 billion dollars. The health plan and hospitals operated under state and federal not-for-profit tax status, while medical teams are operating under the professional bodies, partnerships and profit in its different regions.

Kaiser Permanente began at the height of the Great Depression with a single inventive young surgeon and a twelve-bed hospital in the middle of the Mojave Desert. When Sidney R. Garfield, MD, thousands of men employed in the construction of the aqueduct to Los Angeles, he also saw something else, a chance to provide health care for the working men. He borrowed money to build Contractors General Hospital, six miles from the little town called Desert Center and began treating the injured and sick workers. But the hardest part has been financing and Dr. Garfield face difficulties getting insurance companies to pay its bills on time. And although not all workers had insurance, he refused to divert workers injured or sick. Accordingly, it is often not paid for his services and he was not long before the expenses of running the hospital were much greater than its income.

Today Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals has a single board which is considered the supreme governing body of Kaiser. The chairman of the board of directors is George C. Halvorson and he is the CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. As such, Mr. Halvorson is sometimes called the CEO and president of Kaiser Permanente, although not a director for advice Permanente Medical Group or any of these organizations. C. Halvorson leads a team of national leadership that manages the operation of hospitals and health plans across all regions of Kaiser Permanente. The Board of Directors of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and the hospital consists of 14 members, including Mr. Halvorson. Now, Kaiser Permanente is administered by eight regions, are a parent and five subordinate entities of the health plan with a separate and nine hospitals affiliated medical groups.