See Kaiser Run!
A little bird tells me that Kaiser has hastily been patching remarks on their NCQA ratings into some of their commercials. This is intriguing in light of the fact that Kaiser spent two years collecting and analyzing demographic data that led them to the conclusion that high scores on a few selected clinical indicators had nothing to do with Kaiser's reputation. More money wasted on slick consultants, eh?

I've already waxed poetic on how Kaiser is just hoping that people will hear the word "quality" and make some assumptions about the usage of the word in Kaiser's favor. Now I've found a document that's blunt about how Kaiser games the statistics. For the purpose of calculating bonus pay, Kaiser has defined "quality" as Breast Cancer Screening Rate and Pneumonia Vaccination for Members over 65: http://www.kaiserthrive.info/pdfs/BonusPay.pdf

In other words, Kaiser and NCQA mutually influence each other to focus quality efforts on a cheap and easy indicator or two.

Another amusing aspect of this Bonus Pay doc is that it gives away Kaiser's questionable treatment of their own employees. The number one goal is to reduce the number of Worker's Compensation claims. That's because at Kaiser 20,000 employees are injured every year. Hmmm, could the bonus pay be incentive for the doctors to refuse to diagnose injuries in their fellow employees, since that might lead to eligibility for Worker's Compensation?

Kaiser knows from past run-ins with public outrage that such financial incentives undermine medical decisions. Just last year a couple Kaiser managers were even caught cooking the NCQA books.

And we all know I can vouch personally for the fact that Kaiser managers have no problem submitting false documentation to get the outcome they want. The people at the top who are supposed to be setting the tone of the organization have deliberately chosen to encourage this behavior by looking the other way.

So I pity any Kaiser employee that slips on a banana peel and loses an arm this year: the doctor will just pretend he/she doesn't notice the missing limb. Or they will suggest broccoli will improve the patient's overall sense of well-being. Or a yoga class, if the patient is willing to pay extra.

Be the Swirl