Kaiser suffers Q3 investment losses

After posting a net income of $202 million for the first nine months of this year, Kaiser Permanente has seemingly gone belly-up. For its investment portfolio in the third quarter alone, Kaiser Permanent lost $399 million, compared with a net income of $654 million at the same time last year. The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and subsidiaries, lost $706 million on investments in Q3; last year at this time, they had gained $205 million.

George Halverson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser, thinks that despite the downturn, things remain positive for his company. "Though the unprecedented events unfolding in our economy and financial markets are posing challenges to our organization, our basic business and our integrated-care delivery model remain strong," he said in a statement.

Still, membership is down about 1 percent from a year before (from 8.7 million to 8.6 million members), a number Kaiser chalks up to a decline in employment. Total operating revenue for Kaiser is also up $800 million--from $9.4 billion to $10.2 billion--and capital spending at the company is up 6.4 percent from this time a year ago.

For more:
- here's the Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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