February 17, 2023
Good health starts in our communities: 2022 by the numbers
Kaiser Permanente supports total health in our communities in partnership with dedicated employees, physicians, and community members.
In 2022, our members and communities faced many challenges — heightened inflation, skyrocketing cost of living, and surges in COVID-19, to name a few. As an organization, Kaiser Permanente, working together with community partners, made great efforts to advance total health and health equity. We're addressing key issues that affect health such as housing, nutrition, and gun violence.
Our mission remains the same: to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and of the communities we serve. Our community investments create better health outcomes for more people by going beyond the limits of traditional health care with programs and practices.
Housing for health
10K
Affordable housing units
We expanded the Thriving Communities Fund to $400 million dollars. In 2022, this resulted in the construction and preservation of nearly 10,000 affordable housing units. Affordable housing supports economic development and addresses the systemic economic disadvantages and discrimination that underpin the housing crisis.
We partnered with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s National Institute for Medical Respite Care to create the Medical Respite Initiative. The initiative supports 21 medical respite providers across Kaiser Permanente’s footprint. Now up to 15,000 people experiencing homelessness have a safe place to rest and recover from illness along with access to clinical care and support services.
15K
People with a safe place to recover from illness
980
People received legal support
We provided housing-related legal support to approximately 980 Kaiser Permanente members, patients, and their families through our Health, Housing, and Justice: Medical-Legal Partnership Initiative. Alongside community partners, we integrated medical-legal partnerships into Kaiser Permanente care settings to help our members, patients, and their families when confronting complex health-related legal needs.
Environmental stewardship
We made bold environmental commitments to reduce our climate impacts — aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Our work to reach net-zero emissions, which means reducing greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, goes beyond removing carbon from our energy use and direct emissions. Our goal is to address greenhouse gas emissions created from purchased goods and services, investments, business-related travel and transportation, waste, and employee commuting.
50%
Carbon emissions cut by 2030
100
Solar-powered facilities
We now have on-site solar arrays at more than 100 of our facilities, including 31 of our hospitals. This makes Kaiser Permanente the eighth largest commercial producer of solar power in the United States, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Solar power eliminates carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to air pollution, which often disproportionately affects low-income communities.
Social health
In 2022, we helped 170,000 members connect to public benefit and community-based programs such as food stamps and internet discounts. Many of these can be found through our online community resource directory and phone line.
170K
Members connected with community resources
$50M
Food Is Medicine commitment
Our $50 million Food Is Medicine commitment aims to develop solutions for ending hunger, improving health, and advancing health equity in many ways.
We provided $433 million in medical financial assistance to 319,000 patients who were uninsured and had low incomes to ensure they received the care they needed.
319K
People received access to medical financial assistance
Economic opportunity
9K
Entrepreneurs supported
In 2022, we reached more than 9,000 entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. We helped increase their access to capital, provided business coaching and training, and strengthened business ecosystems through partnerships and policy efforts.
We supported 150 organizations to help 231,000 individuals with low incomes improve their household finances. The organizations helped people build budgets, navigate public benefits, manage debt, access safe financial products, and take advantage of credit-building opportunities such as rent reporting.
231K
Individuals helped on path to financial wellness
Thriving communities
8K
Schools and districts supported to improve health
Thriving Schools served the unique health needs of more than 8,000 schools and districts across the U.S. by supporting the mental, physical, and social health of teachers, staff, and students.
We continued to support CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, which provides guidance to America’s 75 largest cities on best practices in prevention-oriented policies focused on housing, nutrition, education, and safety. Denver, a city in our service area, was one of 2 cities to achieve an overall gold medal in 2022. More than 39 million people live in the 37 largest cities nationwide that earned an overall medal.
39M
People living in healthier cities
$1.3M
Funding for gun violence research and education
We launched a new center for gun violence research, we partnered with nonprofit partners, and we provided $1.3 million in funding to develop, test, and scale public health and health care solutions. By doing this, we aim to reduce the incidence and impact of gun violence — including suicide and intimate partner violence — in the United States.
