Programs
Care and Coverage of Low-Income Families
Kaiser Permanente is committed to making comprehensive health insurance accessible to low-income families. We provide subsidized coverage to approximately 150,000 Southern Californians.
Access to Care
Kaiser Permanente's emergency rooms are open to all. Our charity care program provides care for those unable to pay.
Kaiser Permanente Child Health Plan
Our charitable coverage program, Kaiser Permanente's Child Health Plan, offers low-cost Kaiser Permanente coverage to people in need. Our Plan provides low- cost, comprehensive medical and dental insurance for more than 35,000 Southern California children not eligible for state programs. We also participate in government programs providing health coverage to low-income people. Through Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, we cover more than 120,000 Southern California members.
Medical Financial Assistance Program
Our Medical Financial Assistance Program supports Kaiser Permanente's commitment to improve the overall health of the community by providing care at discounted rates to uninsured nonmembers and eligible low-income members.
Learn more about our Medical Financial Assistance ProgramSafety Net Partnerships
Kaiser Permanente supports a safety net program for the uninsured and underserved by providing grants and sharing our expertise with public hospitals, community clinics, public health departments, and other health care delivery organizations.
We actively strengthen the safety net by partnering with these entities to offer access to high-quality, affordable care, with a focus on prevention and care management.
Unique among funders of the safety net, our grants are accompanied by Kaiser Permanente health care training, technical expertise, and outreach services. We provide volunteer medical staff and donate equipment and supplies.
Recent Kaiser Permanente safety net grants are helping to improve access to primary care and medical specialists, as well as prevent heart disease and stroke for millions of the state's lowest-income residents.
Video: Helping the Homeless Off the Streets
In partnership with the Weingart Center in LA's Skid Row, a team of Kaiser Permanente radiologists reads chest x-rays daily free of charge, ensuring the homeless are scanned for TB and can get a bed and a hot meal. Each year more than 4,000 films are read.
Community Health Initiatives
Our Community Health Initiatives take a preventive approach to health care, focusing on policies and programs that promote healthy eating and active living. Community health improves in an environment that promotes health and well-being and the creation of that environment is accomplished through providing the best medicine combined with education and vital public health activities that support an informed and empowered population.
Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL)
Kaiser Permanente is committed to making communities healthier places to live, learn, work, and play. In every community we serve, we work to fight obesity, reduce health disparities, and make healthy food and physical activity a part of everyday life.
Kaiser Permanente developed the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) initiative in Southern California to address the increasing obesity epidemic.
During the past 20 years, the obesity rate in the United States has doubled, with more than two-thirds of Americans becoming overweight or obese, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. With obesity come associated health risks, including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and depression.
Our Healthy Eating Active Living programs work with communities to change the environment around us: fresh vegetables in the neighborhood market, safe places to play, and healthy choices in the cafeteria.
Video: Introducing Healthy Eating Active Living
This overview provides a fast-paced introduction to HEAL at work in Southern California including Operation Splash, neighborhood fresh fruit stands, and Healthy Picks in schools and workplaces.
Video: Everyone into the Pool
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announces that thanks to Kaiser Permanente's Operation Splash, 32 Los Angeles neighborhood pools will offer free swim lessons.
Develop and Disseminate Knowledge
We are dedicated to improving health care through research programs, education, and training of future health care providers.
Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Programs
Our Educational Theatre Programs bring free, live theatrical programs to schools and communities. They are designed to inspire children, teens, and adults to make informed decisions about their health and to build stronger, healthier neighborhoods. In 2007, more than 217,000 students and adults saw an ETP performance in Southern California.
The Amazing Food Detective, Lower and Upper
For grades 2 - 3 and 4 - 5
Join the Amazing Food Detective as she uncovers a mysterious case in the town of Wellville! Along the journey, students will learn how to make healthier choices.
The program emphasizes the following educational points:
- Drinking water and eating from the five food groups
- Understanding the power of media advertising
- Active playing or exercising for at least an hour a day
- Reading a nutrition label: "When you pick a snack, check the back!"
This multi-intervention program includes a play, an in-class workshop for upper elementary students, and a parent workshop. (Parent Workshop is available in Spanish and English)
Please visit our online game, The Incredible Adventures of The Amazing Food Detective.
Zip's Great Day
For grades K – 4
Zip’s Great Day uses music, dance and puppetry to help elementary students learn to make healthy choices.
The program emphasizes the following educational points:
- Eating healthful foods
- Active playing or exercising for at least an hour every day
- Peer pressure and working out conflicts peacefully
Drummin' Up Peace
For grades 3 – 5
Drummin' Up Peace uses music and drumming to promote conflict management. The program is designed to complement conflict resolution and violence prevention efforts in schools and community locations. Through this program, participants learn:
- Five steps to managing conflict
- Empathy and respect
- Cooperation and communication
This multi-intervention program includes a play, in-class workshop for upper elementary students, a community event and parent workshop. (Parent Workshop is available in Spanish/English)
Someone Like Me
For grades 6 – 8
Someone Like Me tells a story about four middle-school students to convey information about the physical and emotional changes that puberty brings. The program is meant to be a springboard for discussions with teachers, parents, and trusted adults. The program emphasizes the following educational points:
- Puberty happens to everyone at different rates
- It’s important to communicate with trusted adults
- Rumors and gossip are a form of bullying
- In middle school, the developmentally appropriate choice is abstinence
The play includes a question-and-answer session led by trained actor-educators. All questions are answered from a medical perspective.
What Goes Around
For grades 9 – 12
What Goes Around is a high-energy program that provides information about HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The play provides insight into the lasting effect one person's choice can make on the lives and health of many.
The program emphasizes the following educational points:
- Abstinence, the only risk-free option
- The importance of testing
- The importantance of prevention
The play includes a question-and-answer session led by trained actor-educators. All questions are answered from a medical perspective.
CareActors
For Kaiser Permanente physicians, nurses, health care professionals, and other staff members.
CareActors turns Kaiser Permanente workplace challenges into compelling drama designed to improve the quality of Kaiser Permanente continuing education programs. Our team leader will collaborate with you to dramatize your most critical learning points, creating patient simulations, role playing situations, scripted scenarios, or full-length theatrical productions. Our repertoire includes clinician and patient communication, delivery of culturally responsive care, stress management, trauma in the workplace, and nursing and call center challenges.
contact: 818.546.4447
Educational Theatre Program Contact
Phone: 818.546.4470
E-mail: ETPinfo@kp.org
Web: www.kp.org/etp
Research and Evaluation
The Department of Research and Evaluation contributes to the knowledge of how best to deliver accessible, high-quality, cost-effective health care, and improve health. The department provides administrative and technical support for innovative research, and employs epidemiologists and health services researchers who work on projects in the areas of cancer epidemiology, cardiology, diabetes, geriatrics and aging, and women's health. The department oversees the federally mandated Institutional Review Board, which evaluates research projects before they are funded to ensure the protection and safety of human subjects.
Watts Counseling and Learning Center and Baldwin Park Educational Outreach Program
Serving the community since 1967, Kaiser Permanente has operated the Watts Counseling and Learning Center, a community-based social services agency. The Center serves primarily low-income, underserved city residents who live within a six-mile radius of the Center.
Video: Serving the Community in Watts
The Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center provides a range of services including SAT preparation, tutoring, and family counseling.
Watts Counseling and Learning Center and the Educational Outreach Program in Baldwin Park (added in 1993) are staffed by dedicated, experienced professionals committed to providing a broad range of counseling, educational, and child development programs.
For more information:
- Watts Counseling and Learning Center, (323) 568-2265
- Baldwin Park EOP, (626) 851-5183
Regional Partners
California Endowment
California Family Health Council (CFHC)
University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA
