From a jointly built AI documentation tool with Abridge to three distinct growth partnership models, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has spent the past few months navigating expansion, labor tension and legal exposure.
Here’s a breakdown of Kaiser Permanente’s notable initiatives and developments since June 1.
AI-powered clinical care
Kaiser Permanente co-designed, built and first deployed Care Signals, a new capability within Abridge’s AI platform that spans the full arc of a clinical visit rather than just transcribing it. Before a visit, Care Signals flags a patient’s most relevant health conditions; during the visit, it tracks whether a condition was discussed and cues the physician if an assessment and plan is missing. Afterward, it turns the encounter into documentation and matching ICD-10 codes. The tool took 15 months to build, with multidisciplinary Kaiser Permanente teams pressure-testing each round.
Separately, Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest region cut MRI patient wait times by more than 60% using an FDA-cleared AI tool that reduces image noise during scans, shortening average scan time from about 45 minutes to about 30. The shorter sessions let the system schedule more scans on existing equipment without buying new machines.
Growth strategy: three partnership models
Kaiser Permanente has structured three distinct partnership vehicles over the past two years as it looks to extend its outcomes-driven care model beyond traditional membership markets, Shelby DeCosta, senior vice president and chief business development officer, told Becker’s. Kaiser’s data shows its members are 20% less likely to die prematurely of cancer, 33% less likely to die prematurely of heart disease and see 35% lower overall premature mortality than others in their communities.
The first vehicle is a joint-venture health plan, piloted in Nevada with Reno-based Renown Health, which co-owns Renown’s existing Hometown Health plan. Renown retains hospital care and most outpatient services, while Kaiser contributes national health plan capabilities, expanded primary care, new specialty offices and digital infrastructure. The second is Habitat Health, a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly built with investment firm Town Hall Ventures to serve complex, elderly Kaiser members through two centers currently live, showing early reductions in hospital readmissions. The third is Risant Health, the nonprofit Kaiser formed to bring community health systems, currently Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger and Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health, Kaiser’s evidence-based care protocols and patient navigation tools
Leadership moves
Risant Health announced July 29 that founding CEO Jaewon Ryu, MD, is stepping down to focus on his family. Dale Maxwell, former president and CEO of Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services, will serve as interim CEO.
Cortney Eisses, BSN, RN, was named regional president of Kaiser Permanente in Colorado on Aug. 11, after leading the region on an interim basis since February. She joined Kaiser Permanente in 2003 and has held nursing and leadership roles in Colorado, including vice president of hospital and post-acute care in 2022.
Jonathan Watkins was appointed senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa, Calif., service area, effective around Aug. 20, overseeing Santa Rosa Medical Center and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan for a county where nearly half of Sonoma County residents are Kaiser members.
Tracy Bertagnole was appointed senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente’s Fresno, Calif., service area around Aug. 18, overseeing hospital operations and the health plan for Fresno, Clovis, Selma and Oakhurst, an area serving more than 166,000 members.
Also departing Kaiser Permanente: Jake McCarty, most recently COO of Kaiser Permanente’s San Leandro (Calif.) Medical Center, was named president of CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy in Omaha, Neb., part of CommonSpirit Health, effective Sept. 8.
Community investment
Kaiser Permanente committed up to $32 million to expand Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital’s Hope Emergency Center in Los Angeles, which is the largest gift in the 131-bed nonprofit hospital’s history. The commitment includes a $25 million charitable grant and the purchase and loan of a $7 million modular building to keep emergency care running during construction. The ED was originally built for about 25,000 visits a year but now sees roughly 125,000, with patients triaged in parking-lot tents; the gift comes as the hospital separately braces for $80 million to $100 million in annual Medicaid cuts tied to HR 1.
Kaiser Permanente is also advancing its long-planned Redlands, Calif., medical campus. The Redlands Planning Commission was set to review site plans Aug. 25 for the project’s first building — a 113,000-square-foot, three-story medical office and ASC that would house urgent care, outpatient surgery, chemotherapy infusion, imaging, lab services and medical offices.
Financial performance
Kaiser Permanente reported operating income of $1.7 billion (a 4.6% operating margin) in the second quarter of 2026, up from $1 billion (3.2% margin) a year earlier. Total operating revenue reached $35.6 billion, up from $32.1 billion, driven by member dues of $21.3 billion (up from $20 billion), Medicare Advantage revenue of $8.8 billion (up from $7.8 billion) and patient service and other revenue of $5.5 billion (up from $4.3 billion). Total operating expenses rose to $34 billion from $31.1 billion, including $15.4 billion in medical service expenses, $9.9 billion in hospital service expenses and $4 billion in outpatient pharmacy and optical expenses.
Kaiser said operating income is typically stronger in the first half of the year due to health plan enrollment cycles and tends to moderate later in the year as utilization and labor costs rise against relatively flat revenue. Capital spending totaled $1.3 billion for the quarter, up from $1.1 billion, with more than 60 projects in active design and construction as of June 30, including seven major hospital construction projects; Risant affiliates Geisinger and Cone Health also had construction underway.
Legal and regulatory matters
A Portland, Ore., man is suing Kaiser Permanente and several physicians for nearly $534 million, alleging negligence in failing to properly diagnose and treat a worsening AV block, including inappropriately prescribing metoprolol, which the Aug. 21 complaint says led to cardiac arrest, above-the-knee amputation of both legs, fasciotomies on both arms, renal failure and bowel injury requiring an ileostomy. The suit seeks up to $500 million in noneconomic damages, about $2.7 million in past medical expenses, an estimated $30 million in future medical costs and additional lost-income damages. A Kaiser spokesperson said the patient’s clinical needs were complex and that it would not be appropriate to comment further on active litigation.
A California judge entered a final judgment requiring Kaiser Foundation Health Plan to pay more than $82 million to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center over insufficient emergency care reimbursement, plus $12,675 per day until entry of judgment, according to a June 23 court document. The case, filed after a 2017 contract termination, went through a 2023 jury trial and multiple appeals before the state Supreme Court denied Kaiser’s petition for review; the hospital said Kaiser paid about $39.8 million of $136.6 million in total billed charges from October 2017 through March 2020. Kaiser told Becker’s its payments to the hospital exceeded what it typically accepted from other health plans and were substantially above its costs. Other hospitals, including Renton, Wash.-based Providence, have filed similar suits against Kaiser’s health plan.
Kaiser Permanente also reached settlement agreements with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resolving 12 religious-discrimination complaints tied to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, paying $358,000 plus injunctive relief, according to a June 17 EEOC release. The EEOC said it found reasonable cause to believe Kaiser violated Title VII by failing to accommodate some employees’ religious beliefs and questioning the sincerity of those beliefs; Kaiser did not admit wrongdoing and said it acted within the law.
Labor relations
California nurses represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United protested July 13 outside the American Hospital Association Leadership Summit in Denver, ahead of a July 14 fireside chat by Kaiser Chair and CEO Greg Adams, citing concerns over the health system’s accelerating use of AI in patient care. It was the latest in a string of union actions over AI governance, following a 2024 protest outside Kaiser’s San Francisco Medical Center, an August 2025 rally in Honolulu over AI job protections, and a 24-hour CNA sympathy strike in March in solidarity with mental health workers.
Kaiser said in a statement that it is committed to ensuring nurses have a voice in how AI and other evolving technologies are used in their practice and intends to continue those discussions through collective bargaining.
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