kaiser primary care physicians :: Article CreatorKaiser Permanente Colorado Doctors Leaving 2 Hospitals As Intermountain Health Partnership Winds Down
One of Colorado's largest health insurers is halfway through a shift that will move the Denver-area physicians it employs to different health systems' hospitals, changing their patients' options for future medical care.
Doctors employed by Kaiser Permanente Colorado who specialize in cardiology, orthopedics and general surgery began leaving Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver and Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette between January and April. Neurologists, oncologists and obstetricians will follow between June and October.
Those physicians are relocating to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster and HCA HealthOne Rose and HCA HealthOne Presbyterian St. Luke's, both in Denver.
Last year, Kaiser announced new partnerships with CommonSpirit Health and HCA HealthOne. It also added CommonSpirit's Longmont United Hospital and OrthoColorado Hospital, in Lakewood, to its network, but won't station its physicians at those two locations.
At the same time, Kaiser started to wind down a partnership with three Intermountain Health hospitals. Previously, doctors employed by Kaiser could see their hospitalized patients at Saint Joseph or Good Samaritan hospitals. Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge also was in-network, but Kaiser physicians didn't work there.
Kaiser runs both an insurance company and clinics that care for its roughly 500,000 customers statewide, most of whom live in the Denver area. It doesn't own hospitals in Colorado, so it has a network of facilities where its patients can go for that level of care. The doctors it employs work at some of the in-network hospitals.
Part of the reason for the shift was so Kaiser could sell more traditional insurance plans, where people can choose doctors the system employs or others in a broader network, said Mike Ramseier, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado.
It also gave existing customers more choices and helped keep costs down, he said.
"We can be way more flexible," Ramseier said.
The departures won't affect patients who aren't insured by Kaiser, because those physicians rarely saw patients with other coverage, said Scott Peek, president of Intermountain Health's Front Range facilities, including Saint Joseph, Good Samaritan and Lutheran.
The Intermountain hospitals will remain in-network for Kaiser patients through the end of 2026, but patients planning a procedure should check with their insurance to decide where to go, he said.
"We encourage them to call Kaiser to have the latest and greatest" information, he said.
Patients pay a larger share of their hospital bills if they go to an out-of-network facility than if they stay in-network. Emergency care is an exception; federal and state law only allow insurers to charge the in-network rate, regardless of where the patient has to go.
Kaiser's team is reaching out to patients who have scheduled upcoming procedures to talk about their options, though they expect most patients will choose to follow their doctors and have their surgeries or births at the new locations, Ramseier said. So far, the transition has been smooth, he said.
"It's gone extremely well," he said.
The HealthOne hospitals have enough beds available to handle additional patients from Kaiser, and are hiring nurses and support staff to take care of them, said Chad Christianson, president and CEO of HCA HealthOne.
The two systems already worked together at HCA HealthOne Swedish in Englewood and Sky Ridge in Lone Tree, and the services that are moving over are ones where HCA's two Denver hospitals excel, he said.
"That's really strength on strength," he said.
St. Anthony's North was already expanding, so bringing in the Kaiser physicians made sense now, said Ryan Tobin, Denver market president for CommonSpirit Health. The main St. Anthony's campus is also adding beds, so it will have plenty of capacity for everyone, he said.
CommonSpirit also previously worked with Kaiser in southern Colorado.
"Our job is to take care of the community," he said. "We're excited about the future."
Updated 8:30 a.M. May 21, 2025: Due to incorrect information from a source, this article originally misreported the number of Kaiser Permanente members in Colorado. The health system has about 500,000 members statewide.
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Originally Published: May 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT
Kaiser Pulls Physicians From 2 Colorado Hospitals
Kaiser Permanente Colorado is transferring physicians from two hospitals to four others as it strikes new partnerships, The Denver Post reported May 21.
In January, cardiologists, surgeons and orthopedic physicians employed by Kaiser Permanente began leaving Denver-based St. Joseph Hospital and Lafayette, Colo.-based Good Samaritan Hospital. Both hospitals are operated by Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health.
By October, Kaiser Permanente plans to move neurologists, oncologists and obstetricians away from the two hospitals, according to the Post.
In 2024, Kaiser Permanente Colorado secured partnerships with Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health and Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. The insurer is relocating physicians to two HCA hospitals in Denver and two CommonSpirit hospitals — one in Lakewood, Colo., and the other in Westminster, Colo.
As those partnerships were announced, Kaiser began parting ways with Intermountain Health, the Post reported. The Intermountain hospitals will remain in-network for Kaiser patients at least through 2026.
Mike Ramseier, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado, told the Post a reason for moving the physicians is so the company can sell more traditional insurance plans. The physicians mainly provided care to patients covered by the insurer, the report said.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado is part of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente. The parent company runs 40 hospitals and several health plans, but none of its hospitals are in Colorado.
Kaiser Names New Physician In Chief
Kaiser Permanente Napa Solano has named a new physician in chief to lead and oversee its nearly 700 physicians and more than 3,000 medical staff at facilities in Vacaville, Vallejo, Fairfield and Napa.
Eric Au, M.D. Is a cardiologist who joined Kaiser Permanente in 2009. In a press release, the healthcare company said he has held numerous leadership positions and was most recently the Kaiser Permanente Northern California director of cardiac services and the assistant physician in chief for medical specialties in Napa Solano. In addition to his leadership role, Au remains a practicing physician in Vallejo and Vacaville.
Eric Au, M.D. (COURTESY)
"Through collaboration among my fellow physicians, staff, and care teams, our integrated approach to providing high-quality care means our patients always come first," Au said in the press release. "It's an honor to lead and support this team as we provide exceptional care to our members, patients, and the communities we serve."
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Au followed in his father's footsteps by pursuing a career in medicine. He attended Johns Hopkins University for his undergraduate studies and master's degree in health policy, then served as a health policy consultant in Washington, D.C., following graduate school. He obtained his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan and pursued further specialized training in internal medicine and cardiology at Harvard and Cornell universities.
Au follows Chris Walker, M.D., a family medicine physician who has served as the Kaiser Permanente Napa Solano area physician in chief since 2017. Walker now holds a Northern California-wide leadership role with Kaiser Permanente.
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