Our care teams — empowered to collaborate seamlessly within Kaiser Permanente’s model of integrated care and coverage — have a shared commitment to prevent disease, heal illness and injuries, manage complex and chronic conditions, and improve mental health.

In 2021, Kaiser Permanente, along with the world’s health care systems, continued to face challenges during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our highly trained clinical teams worked tirelessly to provide care to those who had their in-person, nonurgent care needs delayed by public health restrictions. And we did so in a safe and coordinated manner to protect our patients, staff, and communities.

As a leader in telehealth, we have continued to expand virtual care options, from preventive care to advanced treatment of complicated and chronic health conditions, in response to our members’ needs and preferences.

We continued to contribute our decades of experience confronting highly infectious diseases to the pandemic response effort in 2021. Our teams’ resilience was once again tested during the 3 major surges in COVID-19 infections, and they demonstrated their commitment and resolve to meeting the care needs of our members and communities. During 2021 we administered 9.4 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests and cared for 808,000 patients with COVID-19, including 62,500 who required hospitalization.

Kaiser Permanente was among the first health care organizations to administer vaccinations when the COVID-19 vaccines became available at the end of 2020. Due to short supplies, obtaining vaccine for our members was a severe challenge at first, but we soon were able to demonstrate to local, state, and federal agencies our ability to get more people vaccinated quickly, safely, and equitably.

As we received larger amounts of COVID-19 vaccine, Kaiser Permanente helped open and run mass vaccination sites and events to improve access. During 2021, we administered more than 10.5 million COVID-19 vaccinations to our members and community members.

Alongside expert physicians and highly rated care facilities, Kaiser Permanente’s robust research capabilities help advance care, improve our members’ experience, and identify solutions to improve the health of our members, patients, and the communities we serve. Our research and clinical practice are integrated to promote continuous improvement and leading-edge care delivery.

Our physicians are at the forefront of research, connecting our patients to clinical trials that offer cutting-edge treatments such as immunotherapy and precision medicine for the care of patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other major life-threatening illnesses. Our research on the coronavirus and COVID-19 contributed to the rapid development of vaccines, treatments, and other therapeutic strategies that helped save millions of lives across the country.

Our member satisfaction ratings and care quality performance are consistently among the nation’s highest, as reported by multiple, independent organizations. Kaiser Permanente was again among the highest-rated health plans in the nation, according to the 2021 National Committee for Quality Assurance's Health Plan Ratings, for providing expert coordinated care and outstanding service to its members and patients.

Our Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial health plans were the highest rated (or tied for highest) in every geographic region we serve. We measure and track our performance to confirm what is working well and to determine where we can improve our care and service on behalf of our members and patients.

We continued to invest and expand the ways in which our members and patients can receive our high-quality, affordable care. Whether members call, click, tap, or visit us in person, our goal is to offer a seamless and personalized experience, because their entire care team is connected.

At Kaiser Permanente, we are committed to providing health care equitably and strive to eliminate disparities in health outcomes for all.

Health equity is rooted in our mission. We take equity into account when we evaluate the quality of the care we provide and the outcomes we deliver to our members. This helps us identify and close disparities in care and outcomes as we strive to provide the best care possible.

While we are proud of our strong track record in preventing disease and advancing health care quality, our mission also calls on us to provide care equitably across the communities we serve. Over two-thirds of our health care workforce — 69% — comprises members of underrepresented and historically marginalized groups. We know that having a workforce that reflects the communities we serve helps to create trust and supports communication for our members.

To support our efforts, we’ve introduced Belong@KP, an action-focused awareness and behavior-change program designed to help the people of Kaiser Permanente learn and demonstrate inclusive behaviors and combat racism and social injustice.

At Kaiser Permanente, equitable care means ensuring that every person has the opportunity to achieve their best health. When we identify a disparity by analyzing care outcomes, we create a comprehensive plan to address it. This enables us to provide the care members need, free of bias and systemic barriers, to achieve optimal experiences and equitable health outcomes.

We are also interacting with and listening to our members — virtually and in person — to better understand and address a range of social health needs, including food security, housing stability, and education. Recognizing the growing importance of digital resources, we’re working to understand the challenges individuals face in accessing and using these tools so that we can intervene to help overcome barriers.

The pandemic and events of the last 2 years have brought to light the health inequity, social injustice, and racism that persist in this country. A disproportionate percentage of COVID-19 illness and deaths has fallen on Black, Latino, and other underrepresented communities.

These inequities and injustices were also evident in the drive for COVID-19 vaccinations, with underrepresented communities having limited access to health care and resources, along with a lack of trust in the health care system.

Kaiser Permanente partnered with cities, states, community and religious organizations, and federally qualified health centers to distribute vaccinations safely and equitably in these communities. We set up community clinics to make it easier to get a vaccination. We helped deliver messages and information to more than 7 million people from trusted voices, leaders, and organizations that have consistently served our communities in need.

Overall, Kaiser Permanente has invested over $71 million in more than 200 community-based organizations to address misinformation, support social needs, remove barriers to vaccine access, and deploy grassroots strategies to increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. We developed and distributed a toolkit to share our knowledge on equitable vaccine distribution, and assisted our business and community partners with guidance on how to effectively communicate vaccine requirements in their own organizations.

Kaiser Permanente has committed to doing more to address social inequity and systemic racism. We are working to end the generational cycles of trauma experienced by communities of color. We are investing more to support businesses owned by underrepresented and historically marginalized groups and have helped more than 18,000 entrepreneurs connect to capital, technical training, and financial coaching. Through these efforts, we’ve helped retain and create thousands of jobs across our footprint.

We increased spending with small suppliers and businesses owned by women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups to $2.98 billion in 2021 — a nearly 48% increase over pre-pandemic levels. These and other ongoing investments help stabilize and strengthen businesses that have been hit especially hard during the pandemic. For more information about our work to improve the health of our communities, see our Community section.

While we know there is much more to do — now and in the future — we are committed to doing our part to create a more just and equitable society for our members and the communities we serve.

Innovation was built into Kaiser Permanente’s very founding, and the spirit of progress, improvement, and creativity it has fostered has never been more needed.

Health care is changing at a rapid pace, accelerated by the pandemic and other forces. We are striving to ensure those changes are patient- and consumer-centered, so that our members and communities benefit.

As a part of our mission, we are always working toward making it easier and more convenient for members to get high-quality care and services. Kaiser Permanente invested in technologies to enable safe and convenient care that helped meet the increased demand for virtual care offerings during 2021. As we invest in new and leading technology, equipment, care facilities, and more, we do so with a member- and patient-first approach.

The need for telehealth and remote care remained high throughout 2021, and Kaiser Permanente focused on more than just meeting the need: We worked on ways to enhance care while providing increased safety and convenience for our members.

Over the course of the year, we provided more than 9.4 million video visits and 15.8 million e-visits — that’s more than 3 times as many as in 2020. We enabled our members to sign in to the kp.org member website and mobile app nearly 692 million times to take actions like sending secure messages to clinicians, viewing lab results, and submitting 51 million prescriptions to be filled online. All these interactions are integrated into our electronic health record system.

Our portfolio of digital self-care apps — to help members improve their well-being and mindfulness and enhance their sleep or mood — continue to be highly valued by our 700,000 registered members.

In 2021, we set out to make 24/7 virtual care available to members with the launch of Get Care Now on kp.org. It provides another personalized way for our members to talk with a clinician and get convenient, high-quality care. During each phone or video visit, a Kaiser Permanente clinician can access the member’s electronic health record and use the medical history to help inform care decisions, order prescriptions, schedule follow-up procedures, or make a referral to a specialist.

We are expanding access to high-quality care and convenience, while preserving the patient-centered care experiences our members expect — all within our connected, integrated system.

Kaiser Permanente has a long-standing commitment to improving the health of our members and creating healthier communities. Our commitment remains as strong as ever as our initiatives grow deeper.

We continued our work in 2021 to build healthier and more equitable communities by making investments and engaging with community organizations, municipal leaders, and other partners to develop tangible economic opportunities; support safety-net organizations to improve access to care; address environmental threats; and foster successful, safe, and healthy schools.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to people’s health in 2021. Kaiser Permanente continued to dedicate substantial resources to support public health initiatives to reduce the damage caused by COVID-19, including testing, prevention, treatment, vaccination, and education.

We launched comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, including education and outreach to foster understanding and confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. We partnered with nonprofit community organizations, safety net providers, social media influencers, and other key community-based organizations to reach more people with information and combat misinformation.

The pandemic also further exposed the deep-seated inequities that already existed in health care and worsened the social and economic disparities that drive poor health. Kaiser Permanente built on the work we began in 2020 to help support the needs of communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This included awarding new grants for faith-based organizations working to protect Black and Latino communities from COVID-19 — supporting community organizations people know and trust as they worked to increase vaccination rates. For more information about our work to promote equal care for all, see our section on Health Equity.

Inclusive economic growth is also critical to both individual and community health. Through our community investments and partnerships from 2020 to 2021, we’ve connected more than 18,000 entrepreneurs in underserved communities to funding and other resources and supported small businesses in retaining or creating 14,000 jobs.

To help protect vulnerable communities, Kaiser Permanente provided grants and other resources to close gaps in care. We launched the Virtual Care Innovation Network program to bring together safety net organizations across our communities to redesign care so that virtual care models continue to thrive and improve access after the pandemic abates.

Our Safety Net Vaccine Equity grants awarded flexible funding to health care safety net clinics working to increase access to vaccines. These funds supported mobile vaccination operations, safe transportation to vaccination sites, language services, and adequate staffing at clinic sites.

Meanwhile, we advanced our social health practice to address the countless social factors affecting our members’ immediate health and well-being such as having a safe place to live, healthy food, and enough money to pay the bills. We added an online community resource directory to kp.org, our member portal, for anyone to use to find information about social services and other resources in their communities.

Our dedicated phone line is available toll-free for members who need extra assistance locating help nearby. Our social health practice complements our broader work to build healthier communities by looking upstream, beyond doctor and hospital walls, to address social factors at an individual level with targeted interventions.

We strive to improve the physical and environmental health of the communities we serve with our commitment to being environmentally responsible throughout our organization — in how we power our facilities; purchase food, medical supplies, and equipment; manage waste; and invest in our communities.

One of the ways we’re building on our climate and health focus is by ensuring our new construction projects that house our health care and business operations are well designed from an environmental and energy efficiency perspective. In 2021, the U.S. Green Building Council identified Kaiser Permanente as the top health care organization in the world for our number of LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings. With a total of 65 LEED-certified buildings, we’re also number one in the U.S. in terms of LEED-certified health care square footage, with 6.9 million square feet.

Together with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, we launched the Thriving Schools Integrated Assessment, a no-cost tool to help schools identify opportunities for promoting student achievement and support the well-being of students, staff, and teachers. The assessment helps schools and districts examine a broad range of topics including social-emotional health, food access, and staff well-being so they can improve factors that impact health and learning, such as attendance, discipline, and school climate.

Our work in 2021 is highlighted further in our annual Community Health Snapshot.

We have great facilities, deploy leading-edge technology, and develop and follow evidence-based medical practices. But it is our people who make our mission come to life and truly set us apart.

The past 24 months of the pandemic have been an incredibly challenging and stressful time to work on the front lines of health care. We are extremely grateful to our entire workforce, whose commitment to providing care and service throughout the multiple surges has been nothing short of inspiring. Our physicians, staff, and everyone who supported their work have demonstrated resilience, expertise, and compassion every day of this public health crisis.

As a health care organization, we have an obligation to our 12 million members — and to our employees, physicians, and communities — to help ensure their safety and to protect them from infection. Kaiser Permanente was one of the first health care organizations in the U.S. to require its workforce to be vaccinated before it was mandated. We continue to help members of the community get vaccinated as well.

Throughout the pandemic, Kaiser Permanente’s highest priority has remained the health, safety, and well-being of our employees, physicians, members, patients, and the communities we serve. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we will also continue to support and help protect our most critical resource: our people.

Equity, inclusion, and diversity are fundamental to our mission, and the diversity of our teams is one of our greatest strengths. In 2021, nearly 69% of our total workforce were members of underrepresented and historically marginalized groups, and 73% were women. We continuously strive to have a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our members and communities, understands their needs and preferences, and delivers culturally responsive care and services.

By being a multicultural organization that not only listens to but celebrates differences, we make our organization stronger and better. We have defined the expectations for ourselves as individuals and for each other to create an inclusive, psychologically safe workplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

Our relationship with organized labor stretches back to our initial days and has helped support and grow Kaiser Permanente over the decades. We have created and sustained one of the nation’s longest-standing labor-management partnerships, which enables collaborative problem-solving through interest-based bargaining and joint resolution of challenges.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.6 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health.

Leadership team
(as of December 31, 2021)

Board of Directors, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
See our current board.
 

Kaiser Permanente National Leaders
See current national leaders
 

Permanente Medicine
 

Printable Annual Report    Kaiser Permanente Community Health Snapshot