Kaiser Permanente Call Center in Gwinnett To Create 800 Jobs

DULUTH, GA — Kaiser Permanente on Thursday was celebrating the grand opening of its Duluth contact center, where nearly 300 employees already have been hired.

By 2020, the Gwinnett County center will employ 800 people, the company says.

Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente is the nation's largest integrated health care system.

"Kaiser Permanente strives to deliver the highest level of care and customer service, and this contact center supports our efforts to make it easy for members across the country to connect with us," said Jim Simpson, interim president of Kaiser Permanente of Georgia. "As a provider of health care and coverage to metro Atlantans for more than 30 years, Kaiser Permanente is invested in this region and its economic vitality. We are proud to be able to create employment opportunities for so many talented customer service professionals."

The company also operates contact centers in California, Colorado and Maryland. Kaiser says metro Atlanta's market for call center workers — the seventh largest in the country — was a key reason it chose to locate a fourth center in Gwinnett County.

The center serves more than 10.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia, including about 300,000 in Georgia.

"We are excited about Kaiser Permanente’s latest investment in Gwinnett and how that decision reflects on our community’s strengths," said Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Charlotte Nash. "Companies like Kaiser Permanente are able to grow and expand their business with confidence knowing they have access to a skilled workforce, solid infrastructure, and quality of life amenities like those offered here in Gwinnett County."

Across the country, Kaiser Permanente’s contact centers handle more than 15 million calls and one million emails a year related to insurance coverage and billing.

In addition to recruiting more than 800 new employees for the Duluth contact center, Kaiser Permanente relocated its Georgia-based member service representatives, appointment schedulers and advice nurses to the location. The site has the capacity to house up to 1,000 workers.

Kaiser Permanente invested $51 million to purchase and renovate the 185,000-square-foot office complex in Duluth to meet requirements for LEED certification as a “green” building.

Last year, Kaiser Permanente opened a new IT facility in midtown Atlanta, which is expected to create 900 new jobs, bringing Kaiser Permanente’s presence in Georgia to more than 5,000 employees and physicians by 2020. The health care organization also operates 26 medical centers across metro Atlanta and in Athens.