Just last month, a New York Times headline proclaimed Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente “the face of future health care.” Not-for-profit Kaiser Permanente evolved from a 12-bed hospital serving Depression-era construction workers in the Mojave Desert to a creator of industrial health care programs for construction, shipyard and steel mill workers for Kaiser Steel and its related industrial companies during the late 1930s and ’40s. It opened to public enrollment in October 1945. One of the earliest models of prepaid private health care coverage in the nation, Kaiser represents nearly 9 million members in 10 states with a delivery system that emphasizes putting as many health services as possible under one roof. The system reported operating revenue of $50.6 billion in 2011 and employs about 172,000 nationwide.
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Mark Zemelman joined Kaiser’s legal department in 1991 after beginning his career working in litigation and environmental law for what was then called McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Zemelman was named to his current post as senior vice president and general counsel of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in 2010. He reports to chairman and CEO George Halvorson.
