About Us
Membership
Current Officers
Members of the Governing Board
Brief History of TPMG
History of the RPA
Membership
The Retired Physicians' Association is open to physician and podiatrist retirees from The Permanente Medical Group of Northern California, plus honorary members. The RPA began in 1978 and currently has about 1000 members. Members receive the quarterly newsletter, pay a discounted price at the quarterly luncheons, and have full access to this website. The RPA makes a charitable donation to KP's Division of Research in the name of recently deceased members. Membership is free in the first year of retirement, and annual dues are modest thereafter. The RPA is not officially a part of TPMG.
Our aims are:
To remind us of our TPMG heritage
To keep us up to date with happenings within the group and the KP program
To help us keep in touch with each other
To cover issues particularly relevant to retired physicians
Current officers of the RPA:
Featured
The governing board of the RPA includes:
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Brief History of TPMG
The Permanente Medical Group, consisting of the Northern California physicians and podiatrists who are part of the Kaiser Permanente family, began in 1948 under the leadership of Dr. Sidney Garfield and other founding fathers. The roots of KP go back to Dr. Garfield's collaboration with Henry J. Kaiser to provide pre-paid health care to thousands of workers and their families who came to remote areas of the West to build dams and aqueducts in the 1930s. The concept continued when Mr. Kaiser operated great shipyards along the West Coast during World War II, employing hundreds of thousands. After the war, many of those workers stayed nearby and were glad to participate in a similar health care program.
At its start, pre-paid managed health care faced bitter opposition from the existing fee-for-service establishment, including the AMA. Those early Permanente physicians often were regarded as socialists, and sometimes were refused admission to medical societies. Things have changed a lot over the years! As of 2014, Kaiser Permanente had almost 18,000 physicians nationwide, of whom about 9,000 are part of TPMG. Permanente physicians have held leadership positions in many medical societies, and have contributed to important discussions at all levels regarding the future of American medical care.
Learn more at http://www.kaiserpermanentehistory.org/ or see Dr. John Smillie's history of TPMG, “Can Physicians Manage the Quality and Costs of Health Care? The Story of The Permanente Medical Group”. (©2000 The Permanente Federation, LLC / McGraw-Hill Companies)
History of the RPA
By KEN BERNIKER
The following relies largely on an account given in 1990 by Sedgwick Mead, then chairman of the RPA:
The RPA began with a group of pioneers who had joined the struggling PMG enterprise in the late 1940s and early 1950s and were about to dissolve the comradeships of those stirring years as they retired. They thought it unfortunate to go their separate ways and perhaps never see each other again. The person deserving the title of "Founder" is Dr. Irving Lomhoff, formerly radiologist at Oakland and Hayward. In 1977 Irv consulted Executive Director Bruce Sams for permission to send a questionnaire to the new retirees asking if they were interested in a retirement association. Dr. Sams assented and directed his office staff to aid the project in every way.
The following excerpt is from the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee of TPMG, dated November 23, 1977:
The Executive Director has received a request from Dr. Irving Lomhoff, a PMG partner who plans retirement in the near future, for secretarial assistance from the Executive Director's office for purposes of establishing an association of retired PMG physicians. Following discussion, it was moved, seconded and carried to support Dr. Lomhoff in this endeavor.
It was moved, seconded and carried to extend an invitation to all retired PMG partners to the last general partnership meeting of each fiscal year, as the guests of TPMG."
This may be considered the "enabling" legislation that put us in business. Receiving a positive response from the questionnaire, an organizing committee was established: Drs. Cecil Cutting, Wally Neighbor, Harris Holmboe, and George Stein. Dr. Joseph Sender, then PIC of Oakland and chairman of the TPMG Executive Committee, suggested that retired partners be included with the general partnership at one of the annual meetings.
Dr. Cutting drew up a proposed series of by-laws and, after several organizing meetings, the first meeting of the retired partners was held — prior to the annual meeting of TPMG on June 5, 1978. The retired partners of the RPA were the invited guests to the annual dinner meeting of TPMG for the first time. The practice of inviting retirees to a general partnership meeting annually continued for some years and was considered a very valued means of renewal of friendships between retired and active partners.
Dr. Lomhoff served as chairman until 1984, and thereafter became secretary. In 1980 he sent a letter of appreciation to the PMG Executive Committee, noting RPA’s progress to that date:
The RPA by-laws stated: "The objectives of the association shall be -
To support the PMG;
To provide a medium through which the retired partners of TPMG may continue to contribute to the strength and success of the entire Kaiser/Permanente Medical Care Program;
To work toward the achieving of benefits of the association members."
By 1980 RPA membership had increased to seventy-one. There had been three general dinner meetings each year with excellent guest speakers. The practice of inviting spouses and/or guests made for very pleasant social renewal of old friendships and had been one of the aspects of the organization that had been quite successful.
I would list the accomplishments of the first two years as follows:
Achievement of the organization of a Retired Partners' Association of TPMG, with its own purpose, objectives and by-laws, and which has been placed on a firm financial basis due to an adequate dues structure.
Establishment of excellent communications with the Executive Committee of TPMG by means of appointment, by TPMG, of a liaison partner, Dr. Harper Gaston, physician-in-chief at Hayward, and distribution of Executive Committee minutes to the Governing Board of [RPA].
Invitations to active RPA members to attend, yearly, the last annual meeting of TPMG.
Amendments to the by-laws offering honorary membership to nominated lay members of the Kaiser/Permanente organization who have made outstanding contributions over the years.
Establishment of an excellent rapport with the Comptroller's Office, allowing for the answers to many questions on the part of retired partners. Dr. William Knigge, chairman of the Benefits Committee, has been invaluable in his achievement of our rapport with the Comptroller's Office.
Issuance of a periodic newsletter, compiled by Dr. Harris Holmboe, and distributed to all members, acquainting them with recent TPMG Executive Committee actions, and other current information about TPMG.
The establishment of regional representatives to the Governing Board from the various localities, at Dr. Holmboe's suggestion. This was an attempt to expand the activities of RPA throughout our area.
The wise choice of our secretary-treasurer, Dr. Sedgwick Mead, who has done a monumental job and to whom we are ever grateful.
