Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated health system, is joining forces with the de Beaumont Foundation, a leader in public health philanthropy, to help U.S. cities thrive through the CityHealth initiative.
Created by the de Beaumont Foundation to promote practices that make cities healthier, CityHealth tracks and reports on proven policies, and works with cities to advance policies that achieve community health priorities. Through this new relationship, Kaiser Permanente will leverage its deep expertise in health policy, government relations, and community-based prevention to accelerate cities’ efforts to improve people’s health and quality of life.
CityHealth promotes nine evidence-based policies addressing issues that have a major effect on health, such as affordable housing, education, and clean air. The first steps of this joint effort will be to identify municipal leaders’ community health policy priorities, and to assess the support they may need to help advance those policies.
“CityHealth embodies the de Beaumont Foundation’s core belief that policy is one of the most powerful tools to improve health,” said Brian C. Castrucci, the Foundation’s CEO. “We’re excited to have Kaiser Permanente join us in this effort to transform health in cities across the country.” CityHealth is an example of the Foundation’s focus on building cross-sector partnerships and offering practical tools and data to improve public health.
Bechara Choucair, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Community Health Officer at Kaiser Permanente, said, “We share the de Beaumont Foundation’s belief that the power of local policy is one of the most promising and effective strategies for transforming health in America, and we are pleased to join them in this important work. The CityHealth initiative provides mayors and other community leaders an opportunity to harness some of that transformational power to improve health, drive down health care costs, and save lives.”
For Kaiser Permanente, this partnership complements the organization’s established approach to community health – bringing together health leaders, clinicians and community partners to help solve the social, economic and environmental health challenges facing its 12.2 million members and the 65 million residents who live in the communities it serves.
Dr. Shelley Hearne, President of CityHealth, said, “We know that where you live has an enormous influence on how healthy you can be. This innovative partnership between two national leaders is a way to catalyze change in city governments so that every resident has the opportunity live a healthy life. Working with city leaders through CityHealth, the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente will bring a pragmatic menu of policy options to create real results in American cities, like better pre-K programs for kids and more public places with cleaner, smoke-free air.”
CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, provides leaders with a package of evidence-based policy solutions that will help millions of people live longer, better lives in vibrant, prosperous communities. CityHealth will regularly evaluate cities on the number and strength of their policies.
