Kaiser Permanente's Health Plan CEO to Retire.

Dr. David Lawrence, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Oakland, Calif., plans to retire in December 2002.

"This has been one of the more eventful and turbulent periods in the history of our nation's health care, and I feel privileged to have led this great organization during this era," Lawrence said in a statement. "We have much more work to do over the next 18 months, but we must begin the transition to a new generation of leadership at the same time."

Lawrence, in collaboration with John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, created the first labor-management partnership in health care. Lawrence has been with Kaiser Permanente since 1981, when he was named to lead the Permanente Medical Group in Portland, Ore. Following a number of executive appointments with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, he was named chief executive officer in March of 1992.

"The choice of a successor to Dr. Lawrence is our single most important and consequential decision," Dan Garcia, chair of the board's search committee, said in a statement. The plan is to name a new CEO no later than June 2002. "This will allow at least a six-month overlap while we transition to new leadership."