Kaiser Permanente is a leading United States-based health care system, consisting of hospitals, physician groups, and other medical services such as insurance plans. It has been one of the largest not-for-profit organizations in healthcare for over five decades and serves millions of members across the nation. Nevertheless, Kaiser Permanente faces a number of major challenges that threaten to undermine its success as a health care provider. The following are two or three major challenges currently being faced by Kaiser Permanente:
1. Increasing competition: One major challenge facing Kaiser Permanente is increasing competition from other providers in the U.S. healthcare market, notably those providing private managed care plans (UnitedHealth Group Inc., CVS Health Corp., Aetna Inc.). These companies have gained a larger share of the healthcare market due to their ability to offer more competitive prices and more comprehensive coverage than what Kaiser can provide (Gruenwald & Balkin, 2019). As such, this could potentially drive down profits for Kaiser and make it harder for them to remain competitive in comparison with these new entrants into the market.
What are two or three major challenges being faced by Kaiser Permanente.
2. Managing technology: Another significant challenge facing Kaiser is managing its use of technology within its health care operations (Chukwuemeka et al., 2018). This includes implementing new systems that can integrate existing databases with newer digital resources such as telemedicine platforms or electronic medical records systems so that patient data can be safely transferred between different departments or locations quickly and efficiently; developing data security measures to protect against cyberattack threats; upgrading infrastructure systems to keep pace with rapidly advancing technologies; and ensuring connectivity among various facilities in order to facilitate communication between staff members throughout different sites across multiple states or countries (Timbrook et al., 2020).
3. Accessibility: Finally, another key challenge being faced by Kaiser Permanente concerns accessibility issues related to its 46 hospitals containing almost 500 beds each located throughout California (Kantor et al., 2021). This includes securing access rights so that patients who live outside their service area may receive treatment at any site they choose; ensuring sufficient availability of appointments at all facilities regardless of distance from where they reside; modifying pricing structures so as not to disproportionately disadvantage lower income households who cannot afford certain services provided by Kaisers’ regional offices; limiting wait times for appointments through special scheduling protocols which prioritize certain patient types over others based on need; and addressing potential language barriers experienced by non-English speaking individuals when accessing services at designated clinics (Mills et al., 2019).