Kaiser Group Health Insurance in California

Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest health insurers of small business employer groups in the state of California.  It is unpaired and quite exeptional from the other medical insurance companies. Kaiser Permanente prevails in certain areas of California in small business group health insurance. Taking a look at the pro's and con's of insuring your employees with Kaiser Permanente group health insurance.

Introduction to Kaiser Permanente in California

Kaiser health insurance dates back to the great depression and has a great presense in California. Traditionally, it has been an HMO provider but is different from the other California health insurance companies in that it employs the actual doctors and owns the hospitals. The other insurance companies contract with individual medical groups and hospitals to provide HMO coverage to their enrollees. Kaiser is the insurance company and the medical provider. There are pro's and con's to this type of delivery. For one, people may be concerned about financial concerns affecting medical decisions.  To some extent, this is an subject to debate relating to HMO's in general and not specific to Kaiser Permanente. The proximity of insurance company and healthcare provider might further the concern. Again, HMO's by their design have this concern as even independent medical groups and doctors are paid a fixed amount per enrollee. The medical group then must balance care options with a fixed budget in order for the HMO relationship to remain viable.

Kaiser Permanete Locations and Small Group Coverage

The other major difference with Kaiser Permanente is that healthcare provider owns the actual hospitals and medical facilities. This affects where Kaiser is available. The facilities tend to be in more populous areas which is true also for most HMO's. Kaiser Permanente relies on highly populated areas to remian competitive and provide nesesary medical services. If you live outside a Kaiser area, you may not be able to take advantage of companies HMO plan benefits. In some instances Kasier Permanente might not work for all the small business health insurance requests. The current viable option is Kaiser has the option for some situations where employee lives in the are where the is no Kaiser facility. The option is to choose one of the PPO plans. Kaiser Permanente has contracted with a nationwide network to provide PPO benefits as part of their suite of plans. Kaiser is traditionally, not thought of as a PPO health insurance provider.

Why Kaiser Permanente Small Group Remains Popular

There are three main reasons that Kaiser Permanente is a dominant provider of small group health insurance in California.

1. Cost. This is the biggest driver as Kaiser is very difficult to beat cost-wise. It's rare to find cheaper alternatives for equivalent benefits on the market...either HMO or PPO. If cost is the main concern for an employer, Kaiser is an option to look at.
2. Ease of Use. If choosing your own doctor is not an issue, some people like the feel of Kaiser.  When you go to a Kaiser facility, the process can be pretty smooth as all the needed information lies within one "umbrella". Your medical history and information is available throughout the system.
3. Day to day medical. Kaiser is great for your basic health care needs with a focus on prevention.  Maternities can be handled very well. The only issue (as with all HMO's) is when you have something more exotic health-wise. You may want to go to a particular specialist who concentrates on your ailment.  Within an HMO type of plan, this might not be an option. For the majority of medical services, however, Kaiser can be very cost-effective and user-friendly.

Kaiser Permanente Wrap and Future

There is an option called the "Kaiser Wrap" where you can split employees between Kaiser plans and those of another health insurance company such as Anthem Blue Cross. There are eligibility requirements in terms of numbers of employees on each plan but this allows those that like Kaiser to go there, and those that do not, to choose another carrier.

Kaiser Permanente will continue to be a strong carrier going forward in the California small business group health insurance market. HMO's in general have been under pressure as their rates have increased at a quicker clip than less-rich plans but Kaiser Permanente is the best at cost-containment and efficiency to help offset this premium pressure.