News release: Colorado - Denver/Boulder

March 1, 2003

For more information, call:
Steve Krizman
Kaiser Permanente
Phone: (303) 344-7932
E-mail: Steve.A.Krizman@kp.org

Kaiser Permanente maintains solid financial position while advancing commitment to patient care

Investments in technology and facilities meet the needs of 400,000 members served by non-profit health plan

Denver, CO – Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado income exceeded expenses by $54.7 million in 2002, keeping the health care provider on track to meet its construction and technology costs.

Because Kaiser Permanente is a non-profit, net income is used to finance technological and facility improvements. Kaiser Permanente recently announced plans to upgrade its electronic medical record system, ultimately allowing patients to access their medical information online. It is expanding and renovating several medical offices, and is building a multi-specialty medical office building in Lafayette to provide more convenient access for its north metro patients.

Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado revenues were $1.2 billion in 2002. The margin is 4.5 percent of revenues.

“We achieved our financial goals, which ensures our continued stability in this rocky health care market,” said Rick Newsome, vice president of finance. “A modest margin allows us to continue to buy technology and facilities to better serve our members.”

Kaiser Permanente has shown a small margin of under 5 percent ever since reporting a loss in 1998. At the same time, its quality scores have paced the state and nation. In fact, Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado region was the only health plan west of the Mississippi to make the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s top 15 list.

“It’s not a coincidence that a leader in quality is also financially sound,” Newsome said. “We were founded more than 60 years ago on the principle that quality and prevention make health care affordable for a greater number of people.”

(Because of differing accounting rules, the 2002 net income to be reported to the state of Colorado in March will be $42.4 million. Most of the difference is attributed to stock market losses in the Kaiser Permanente pension fund, which the state Division of Insurance requires to be recorded as an expense.)

Nationally, Kaiser Permanente reported net income of $70 million and operating income of $142 million on revenues of $22.5 billion.

Kaiser Permanente is a non-profit health care organization that cares for more than 400,000 members in the six-county Denver metro area and in Colorado Springs. Its scores for clinical effectiveness placed it among the top 15 health plans in the nation, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s annual Health Care Quality Report. In the Denver metro area, care is provided by a coordinated team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, mental health counselors and physical therapists. In the Colorado Springs area, Kaiser Permanente cares for its members through an affiliated network of community-based physicians and other health care providers.