In the Community

July 23, 2009

Kaiser Permanente’s 2008 Community Benefit Report Now Available Online

Making Our Communities Healthier

The 2008 Community Benefit Report highlights Kaiser Permanente’s activities and performance in improving access to high-quality health care and investing in the creation of healthy environments. Through grants to more than 2,400 organizations and our continued participation in programs for low-income individuals and families, we invested more than $1 billion in our communities last year.

With unprecedented numbers of Americans uninsured as a result of the economic crisis, our community benefit work has taken on new weight. We want our communities to emerge from this recession in good health. Just a few highlights of our 2008 community benefit accomplishments described in this report include:

• Our Charitable Health Coverage programs grew by 16 percent, with year-end enrollment surpassing 100,000 members.
• We provided care to more than 300,000 Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program members, an 11 percent increase over 2007.
• We expanded our place-based Healthy Eating, Active Living initiatives from 27 to 40 communities across the country.
• We funded the first virtual school that will allow students from all over the world to learn from experts about patient safety and effective care from each other.
• Our Educational Theatre Program reached more than 678,000 children and adults through more than 2600 performances.
• We saved 925,000 gallons of potable water per year through use of each of our digital X-ray imaging systems, which also eliminate harmful chemicals.

Our community benefit work offers a real resource to policymakers designing national health reform: our programs for the uninsured, our partnership with the safety net to improve care and eliminate disparities, our work with communities to develop healthier environments, and our research on what truly works to heal patients and to keep people healthy.

To learn more about our national and regional community benefit programs and to view and download the 2008 Community Benefit Report, visit our Web site.