Kaiser Permanente, the fourth-largest hospital system in Orange County, appointed Payman Roshan as its new senior vice president and area manager for the OC Service Area, replacing Mark Costa who is retiring next month.
Roshan will have operational responsibility for two major medical centers—Anaheim and Irvine—and 24 medical offices, which provides care for nearly 600,000 Kaiser Permanente Orange County members.
Roshan is “the perfect leader to help ensure that Kaiser Permanente Orange County can advance through this pandemic and pivot back to a more normal care delivery operation,” Julie Miller-Phipps, president, Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Hawaii, Health Plan and Hospitals, said in a statement.
“Additionally, his focus on maintaining a high-performance culture will allow him to take our operations in Orange County to the next level in this highly competitive healthcare market,” she added.
$1.2B Annually
Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente currently serves 12.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia.
Kaiser reported $1.2 billion in revenue in Orange County for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
In 2014, the year before Costa became the top regional boss, Kaiser’s annual revenue was $450 million. Costa is credited with overseeing the growth of more than 100,000 members.
In 2021, the Business Journal was first to report on Kaiser spending $40 million to buy a 10-acre site at a portion of the Westminister Mall with plans to build a new medical office facility, a site expected to become a third local hub after Anaheim and Irvine.
Kaiser Permanente also has plans to expand its footprint in Aliso Viejo with a brand-new medical office building.
Soccer Player
Born and raised in Iran, Roshan left the country as a teenager and ended up at Mercer University in Georgia, where he received a soccer scholarship and earned a degree in biomedical engineering. He also has an MBA from National University and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at Harvard.
After a stint as an executive at a clinical technology firm, he joined Kaiser in 2005, taking on a variety of roles, including most recently as a senior VP at Downey Medical Center, where he helped the hospital achieve a Magnet designation in Nursing practice excellence.
Although he’s lived in Orange County since 1999, his prior Kaiser jobs often involved long commutes.
“I would often pass the Kaiser hospital in Irvine and my wife and son said, ‘When are you going to work here?’” recalled Roshan, who is now a Newport Coast resident. “I’ve seen my colleagues who worked in the communities where they lived and how proud they were.”
“I wanted to be able to serve the community that I lived in as well.”
He’s chairing many Kaiser technology committees on the lookout for the newest products, such as artificial intelligence for predictive outcomes.
“We do a lot of kicking the tires before making our decisions,” Roshan said.
“Being a bio engineer, I’m a healthcare geek.”
His priorities are sustained quality, patient care experience and membership growth. Its 600,000 members implies Kaiser has around 19% market share of Orange County’s 3.17 million residents.
When asked how he could increase the market share, he acknowledged it would be difficult.
“Orange County has been one of the most competitive health markets in the country,” he added. “There are quality competitors.”
