Growth in Membership Numbers Slows at Kaiser Permanente for 2007
For 2007, Kaiser Permanente reported a membership increase of about 13,000, down from membership growth of about 213,000 in 2006 and 208,000 in 2005, the East Bay Business Times reports.
In addition, the number of paying members dropped at Kaiser in 2007, a situation that Kaiser executives confirmed but declined to quantify, according to the Business Times.
Kathy Lancaster, a senior vice president and CFO for the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, attributed the slowdown in overall membership growth to an overall downturn in the economy.
Nonetheless, Lancaster said Kaiser would open "three or four" new facilities in 2008 in California but left the door open to some projects being scaled back (Hogarth, East Bay Business Times, 3/3).