Our Point of View

August 26, 2009

Kaiser Permanente Physicians, Employees Brief U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer at New Oakland Facility

A cross-section of Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians briefed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday about Kaiser Permanente’s unique model of care, its commitment to health care reform, its leadership in health information technology, and other important topics.

Held at a new Kaiser Permanente medical office building in Oakland, Calif., the briefing sought to show Boxer how Kaiser Permanente plays leading roles in numerous facets of health care and health care reform. Leading the briefing were Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals CEO George Halvorson, and Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, whose 6,000-plus physicians provide care for Kaiser Permanente’s 3.2 million members in Northern California.

In particular, Boxer said she was impressed by a demonstration of Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®, the world’s largest civilian electronic health record system. The demonstration, led by Pat Conolly, MD, associate executive director of The Permanente Medical Group, prompted Boxer to later say that KP HealthConnect in particular, and Kaiser Permanente’s model of care in general, would be top of mind as she worked on health care legislation.

“I think Kaiser Permanente is really a model in terms of connecting everything about their patients, and this is really important and something we’re going to strive for as we draft legislation,” Boxer said at a press conference after the briefing. “This (Kaiser Permanente care) model is working very well, and so I want to make sure that any health reform we do enables this model to continue. We’re going to work closely to make sure that any (legislation) we do allows this integrated way of covering people to continue.”

Boxer held a roundtable with several Kaiser Permanente caregivers and talked about a broad range of topics involving health care and health care reform. The event was held at Kaiser Permanente’s new Broadway Medical Office Building and Cancer Center in Oakland, which opened in May.

Boxer held a press availability following the demonstration and roundtable. When asked if there were health care reform proposals that she would not support, she said, “I am not going to support the status quo.” She talked at length about how important it was to her to make sure that any legislation addresses the fact that 46 million Americans lack health insurance.