Arthur M. Southam, MD, MBA is executive vice president, Health Plan Operations, for Kaiser Permanente, America’s largest not-for-profit health system with $80 billion in revenue, providing integrated health care and coverage to more than 12.2 million members and patients in eight states. Dr. Southam joined Kaiser Permanente in 2001 and has national responsibility for Health Plan marketing, sales, service, and administrative activities that support growth and care. He is dedicated to helping Kaiser Permanente deliver high quality, affordable health care and coverage to more Americans.
Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Southam was chief executive officer of two California-based health plans, Health Net and CareAmerica.
In addition to his leadership responsibilities with Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Southam serves on the board for CHRISTUS Health, an international Catholic health system with ministries in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. He is Chairman of the Board of the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. He served as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America, contributing to the widely cited publications, To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. He is a past chairman of the California Association of Health Plans and board chair for CHRISTUS.
Dr. Southam received his medical degree and MPH from UCLA, and his MBA from Pepperdine University. He received his BA in Neuroscience from Amherst College.