This company is one of the biggest managed care companies throughout the U.S. They provide health insurance plans that help individuals obtain quality care and at the same time helping them to keep the costs down.

Their plans are affordable and convenient, and it comes in a variety of deductibles that make them more flexible to suit any budget. It has also a major network of high quality hospitals and doctors.

How is this company organized

It is composed of 3 separate organizations:

One of the organizations is the *Kaiser Foundation Health Plans. It manages and markets health plans that are offered to people and businesses. It is a non-profit organization.

Another organization is the*Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. It is a network of hospitals in the U.S. that serves plan members and the general public. It is a non- profit organization.

Another important organization in this field is the *The Permanente Medical Groups. It is a network of doctors that serve plan members. It is also a non- profit organization and they receive funding from Kaiser Foundation Health Plans.

The foundation was started by Henry Kaiser, one of the company's founders. However, the foundation isn't connected to Kaiser Permanente.

History

Kaiser Permanente started in 1945. The capitalist Henry Kaiser was a leader of more than a few large construction plans on the West Coast which includes Grand Coulee Dam and Los Angeles Aqueduct. In order to cover the health insurance of his employees, he created a variety of difficult relationships with various insurance companies and hospitals.

In the early 40s, he and Dr. Garfield created some organizations that became Kaiser Permanente. Since it started, their focus was to provide preventive care and to educate their policy members about maintaining their own health.

Where is Kaiser Permanente Today?

Their business expanded noticeably after the United States Congress passed the HMO Act of 1973. This law provides Federal Grants to widen HMO health plans and remove some restrictions of doing businesses as a Health Maintenance Organization plan.

Changes in the health insurance market made Kaiser Permanente scale back their operations of business in the late 90s. A lot of branches and outlets in the Northeastern U.S and along the Atlantic coast have already been closed or sold.

Even though it had a downturn in the late 90s, they've remained a strong organization financially. Nowadays, they have more than 8 million members. Their healthcare provider net includes 37 medical centers and over 12,000 physicians.