Kern Health Systems Company

Kern Health Systems (KHS) are both Knox-Keene licensed Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO). KHS contracts with the State of California to provide full service medical coverage (with a few carve outs) to enrolled Medi-Cal beneficiaries. KHS currently has approximately 290,000 members.

HMOs are regulated at both the state and federal levels. They are licensed by the states, under a license that is known as a certificate of authority (COA) rather than under an insurance license. State and federal regulators also issue mandates for health maintenance organizations to provide particular products. The Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) licenses KHS and both DMHC and the Department of Health Care Services regulate Medi-Cal health plans in California.

HMOs operate in a variety of forms; the most common are staff model, group model, and open-panel HMO. KHS is an open panel HMO where a physician may maintain their own office and may see non-KHS members. KHS contracts with over 800 providers of medical care to render covered services to KHS members.

Through organized systems of care that emphasize primary and preventive care, KHS provides cost-effective use of health care resources that improve health care access and assure quality of care. KHS is the Health Plan of choice in Kern County, with a choice rate of 2:1 over its competitor, Health Net.

KHS has approximately 430 employees that perform the following medical and administrative functions for KHS.

Mission: Dedicated to improving the health status of our members through an integrated, managed healthcare delivery system.