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California-based and integrated managed care consortium Kaiser Permanente is set to expand its footprint in the healthcare industry by incorporating another aspect to its integrated healthcare system model.

The Kaiser group officially announced the opening of its in-house medical school in California by 2019. The group's care model seeks to mutually reinforce the benefits of nonprofit insurance plans alongside its own hospitals and clinics, as well as medical education that trains future generations of medical and healthcare practitioners in an integrated system.

"It's a natural evolution for us," exclaimed Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser's CEO, as quoted saying by the Wall Street Journal.

Kaiser hopes that such move would open greater windows for innovation-driven opportunities in the healthcare sector. It is also a clear sign that the managed care operator intends to reinvent conventional medical education by offering immersive real-world training to students in their integrated model of managed care.

"If health care is increasingly going to take place in integrated systems, a large part of the medical education experience should be what it's like to work in a system like that: the efficiencies and the processes and the ways in which patient care is benefited," observed Dr. George E. Thibault of Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation as quoted saying by New York Times.

The initiative greatly extends what Kaiser is already doing as far as medical education is concerned. And of course, those who study at the Kaiser-owned Medical School are not all expected to work for the firm. Currently, there are about 600 new doctors completing their residency programs in their hospitals.

But not everyone is impressed.

"It won't be a fit for some students. They will still want UCLA, USC, Johns Hopkins," remarked Steve Valentine of health care company Premier Inc. as mentioned in an article by ABC News.