Credibility and creativity: a conversation with Kaiser Permanente's George C. Halvorson

In 2002 Kaiser Permanente's board surprised the industry by reaching outside its organization and selecting a nonphysician leader, George C. Halvorson, then CEO of HealthPartners of Minneapolis. In this interview Halvorson talks about returning to Kaiser's strengths--its sixty-year-plus history of integrated health care organization and its power base along the Pacific Coast--and about how he and his physician colleagues intend to leverage clinical information technology to improve their subscribers' health. Halvorson also discusses the new Medicare prescription drug legislation, the sources of the current run-up in health costs, and how he intends to position Kaiser for future growth.