In 2010, the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was an important step in the direction of universal coverage, prevention, wellness, and the building of healthy communities. Unfortunately, the nation’s economy could not be described as healthy. But our commitment to make our communities safer, healthier places remained strong. So we rose to the challenge, and contributed more than $1.8 billion to the cause of community health. We provided access to affordable care and coverage. We helped public hospitals and community clinics improve the care they deliver and expand their treatment capacity. We supported research, education, and training. We made our own facilities even more eco-friendly. And we promoted health through better diet, physical activity, and greener neighborhoods.
Our commitment to improve the health of the communities we serve is fundamental to our mission. That commitment includes helping low-income families access the care they need. And in 2010, with the U.S. economy still in recovery, more people than ever could not afford the care they needed.
In 2010, we significantly expanded the reach of our care and coverage programs, impacting more than 510,000 low-income children and adults by year’s end, up from 471,000 in 2009.
We expanded our Medicaid membership by more than 25,000 to 213,000 and our CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) membership increased by 20,000 to 192,000. We provided charity care to more than 121,000 individuals through our Medical Financial Assistance program (up more than 25 percent over 2009). In all, because of our efforts, Kaiser Permanente provided care and coverage to more than 510,000 low-income children and adults who could not afford private health care coverage in 2010.
In 2010, we provided almost $40 million in core funding to our safety net partners, who include community health centers, free clinics, public hospitals, and public health systems. These chronically underfunded and overwhelmed safety net institutions provide significant levels of health care to underserved communities across the nation.
Just as important as our financial support, we strengthened our partnerships with safety net providers by sharing our research, innovations, and best practices in evidence-based clinical care. As a national leader in chronic disease management and technology-enabled care, we help our partners prepare for the more rigorous quality standards that will be required to receive incentives under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We also support a variety of educational programs that will train the next generation of safety net health professionals, including physicians, nurses, and technicians.
The health care services delivered to individuals are just one of the many factors that influence each person’s — and each community’s — total health. We also look at the complex interplay of genetic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors that affect our health wherever we live, work, play, or relax. This expanded view of total health guides our Community Health Initiatives (CHI), including our Healthy Eating and Active Living programs and our Environmental Stewardship program, all of which work together to promote healthy people through healthy communities.
In 2010, we invested in prevention-driven CHI programs in more than 40 cities and neighborhoods throughout our service areas to address the multiple contributors to the obesity epidemic and its related health problems. Our efforts covered a wide range of activities that affect health directly and indirectly. They include influencing land use planning and economic development, supporting nutrition and physical activity programs in schools, providing healthy food access in low-income neighborhoods, improving public safety, and much more.
Of course, an organization of our size has a definite impact on its environment, so we made even more of an investment in becoming even greener. We stepped up our ongoing initiatives, and introduced new ones. We worked to combat climate change; reduce or eliminate the use of toxic materials and chemicals; sharply limit hazardous and other waste; and to change food production and transport practices that undermine health. In each of these areas, we made significant progress in 2010, building on our achievements from previous years and breaking new ground that raises the bar for the entire health care industry.
This year, our Community Benefit Annual Report entitled ”Full Speed Ahead: Advancing the greater good through our vision of total health,” celebrates Kaiser Permanente’s comprehensive approach to health and wellness through its fostering and support of sustainable, equitable, thriving communities.
Recognizing the challenges and opportunities of 2010 — a year of full of highs and lows as the nation dealt with the promises of health care reform and persistent economic uncertainty — Kaiser Permanente again stepped up its support. We invested a total of $1.8 billion in our communities, a seven percent increase over 2009. Our grantmaking alone totaled nearly $90 million. Those grants were made to more than 2,500 organizations in our communities nationwide.
Kaiser Permanente worked in 2010 to continue furthering three important goals: Healthy people; Healthy environments; New health knowledge.
