Kaiser Permanente		Kaiser Permanente is a health maintenance organization (HMO) comprised of representatives from medicine and management, sharing responsibilities for organizing, financing and delivering quality healthcare services to its members on a prepaid basis. A group practice prepayment program, Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of over 6.5 million members in 16 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia. Kaiser Permanente is organized into eight self-governed divisions and divided into three administrative arms: • Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, which signs up subscribers; • Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and • Permanente Medical Group, an independent association of physicians that contracts with the Health Plan to provide medical services. The California Division of Kaiser Permanente is a prepaid, health maintenance organization (HMO) serving almost 5 million members throughout the state. The Division has approximately 6,100 physicians and 55,000 employees. It is organized into 12 local market areas, which are served by 26 major medical centers. The California Division is a consolidation of what were formerly two separate regions. The former Southern California Region of Kaiser Permanente provides health services to more than 2.2 million members in the Southern California area. It maintains, at present, 11 major medical Centers with more than 65 Medical Offices spread over more than 140 physical facilities. The Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG) includes more than 3,500 physicians and approximately 39,000 support staff. The physicians and support staff provide more than 13.5 patient encounters per year, a number that includes approximately 250,000 inpatient hospitalizations. The former Northern California Region of Kaiser Permanente currently has 15 hospitals with 3,200 licensed beds and 32 outpatient medical offices. The North sustains 200,000 inpatient admissions and 14 million outpatient visits each year. More than 3,000 physicians and 21,000 employees work together to deliver quality health care to our 2.6 million members or approximately 28% of Northern California’s population.