George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of the Oakland-based integrated provider, Kaiser Permanente, has announced that he will retire in December 2013. Halvorson has been chairman and CEO of the provider since 2002, and under his leadership Kaiser Permanente has grown to serve more than nine million members, implemented an enterprise-wide EHR system, opened seven new hospitals and a healthcare innovation center, and won numerous industry awards for quality healthcare delivery.
Halvorson’s retirement is a year away, because Kaiser says this will ensure a smooth transition for his successor. The Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan board of directors will now go through a process that will result in the selection of a successor as chair and CEO.
Over the past decade, Halvorson has seen his decision to implement Kaiser Permanente’s HealthConnect, an enterprise-wide EHR, achieve quantifiable success and help the provider become a leader in patient engagement. According to Kaiser, it’s the largest non-governmental system in the world. In the first six months of 2012, members 16.7 million laboratory results, exchanged 6.8 million emails with their Kaiser Permanente caregivers and refilled 5.6 million prescriptions online.
Kaiser Permanente has achieved numerous industry awards over Halvorson’s tenure, including its health plan earning the top spot in the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Health Insurance rankings for Medicare and commercial HMO plans in each of the states Kaiser Permanente serves. It also was tops in various NCQA Quality Compass effectiveness of care measures, including breast cancer screening, weight assessment for children, cholesterol management, asthma care, osteoporosis management, and comprehensive diabetes care.
Furthermore, in the last decade, Kaiser Permanente has opened seven new state-of-the-art hospitals and 180 medical offices and other outpatient facilities, as well as The Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro, Calif. and the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health in Washington, D.C.
“Kaiser Permanente has been a great place to work for me,” said Halvorson. “I have very much enjoyed the last decade. We have done a lot of good things and we continue to make progress in a lot of areas.”
Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Halvorson was president and chief executive officer of HealthPartners, headquartered in Minneapolis, for nearly 18 years. With more than 30 years of health care management experience, he has also held several senior management positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Health Accord International.
