title: Managed care in the Northern California Kaiser Permanente health care system.
abstract: Kaiser Permanente in Northern California is a group model health maintenance organization (HMO) that contracts with The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. (TPMG) to provide care for health plan members. TPMG is the largest (for-profit) private group practice in the world, with 3600 physicians in Northern California, including 62 urologists, providing care to 2.5 million health plan members. Recent changes in health care financing and delivery mandate an HMO-physician relationship which addresses issues of cost, quality of care, and the needs of physicians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento, California 95825-2115, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Russo
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D017046:Cost Savings; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007902:Length of Stay; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011320:Primary Health Care; D014572:Urology / Q000193:education