kaiserfraud ([info]corphq) wrote,
@ 2006-06-09 22:36:00
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Entry tags:kaiser lawsuit, kaiser patients, kaiser permanente

The Pettingill Follies
I just found this remark about ex-Kaiser bigwig Dick Pettingill buried in my comments:

Yes, Dick Pettingill has moved on to Minnesota where he has tried to implement the EPIC Systems EMR. What a joke! The EMR is a disaster at my hospital. The system is so cumbersome most of the docs are refusing to take part in the whole CPOE idea. Trying to run a hospital using big business efficiency models just simply doesn't work. Now, because we're going broke trying to pay for the EMR, he's making staffing cuts and trying to squeeze the worker-bees in order to try to stay afloat. thanks Kaiser for sending him our way!!


And here was my reply:
The same thing happened at Kaiser. First they wrote off $442 million on an IBM system that was just incomprehensible. I have to say IBM is famous for this - they try to impose proprietary language and weird systems so corporations will have to rely on IBM consultants. In this case, the consultants would come in and start talking about "applying baselets", and all the physicians would just glaze over. To this day the number one problem with the technical point of view is that the user should take the time out of their regular job to learn new systems. :-p

Kaiser is paying for its current EMR by hiking their membership fees and passing the costs on to patients.


Original quote here.

In other news, one of the law firms suing Kaiser has weighed in on Kaiser's latest warning from Medicare:
"The findings just released by the federal Center for Medicare Services (CMS) appear to confirm what we believe and alleged in our lawsuit to be true. Kaiser was negligent in their failure to meet quality standards and in patient care. As a result, members' rights were severely compromised...The fact that Kaiser will NOT appeal the federal findings speaks volumes about their wrongful conduct. The failure of Kaiser's San Francisco Kidney Transplant Program and lack of oversight is inexcusable. However, Medicare must continue reimbursement for Kaiser kidney patients at UCSF and UC Davis or the patients will be victimized further...A June 15 deadline has been imposed on Kaiser to report their plan of correction to the federal agency. "It is outrageous that kidney transplants were delayed and Kaiser patients died or their health was adversely affected. We will anxiously await Kaiser's plan to correct their deficiencies..."


However, the plaintiffs will probably be victimized yet further by Kaiser's system of forced arbitration, which relies on freelance Judges who want to please Kaiser in order to get further business from them.

By the way, did anyone else notice that Kaiser whipped out spinmeister Schiffgens? What does it say that Kaiser is resorting to a proven liar, who has shown no remorse for attempting to frame me, as the frontman for the ongoing transplant debacle?

(6 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Mr. Pettingill ...
[info]intrepidliberal
2006-06-11 01:44 am UTC (link)
sounds like another piece of feculent residue from the corporate gulag known as Kaiser Permanente. He deserves to be frogmarched to hell forthwith along with the entire executive management team for this entity laughably referred to as a non profit. People need to wake up and realize that Kaiser is nothing but a greed mongering criminal enterprise with bean counters and bureaucrats guilty of committing homicide by calculator.

Intrepid Liberal Journal

(Reply to this) (Thread)
LOL!
[info]corphq
2006-06-12 01:01 am UTC (link)
Homicide by calculator - good one!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2006-06-13 03:42 pm UTC (link)
“The fact that Kaiser will NOT appeal the federal findings speaks volumes about their wrongful conduct. The failure of Kaiser's San Francisco Kidney Transplant Program and lack of oversight is inexcusable. However, Medicare must continue reimbursement for Kaiser kidney patients at UCSF and UC Davis or the patients will be victimized further," said Eisenberg.”

This is a quote from your link. I am glad to see a good attorney is leading the suit. But I do not necessarily agree with his quote about “speaking volumes.” It does say something about the system and that Kaiser usually does not fight with regulators. When they get caught, they usually pay the rarely assessed fine and go on. In the health care field you will rarely find an attorney willing to go “adverse” to DMHC, and other regulators. The HMO’s are the same. They are smart enough not to fight nor appeal, because then it goes before an administrative law judge who gives deference to the agency.

When you get a reputation of being a fighter, instead of a cooperator, you just make life harder, and the agency will crackdown more. I think that is the normal situation. In this case the evidence is bad for Kaiser, so the attorney may have a point.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
True
[info]corphq
2006-06-13 08:01 pm UTC (link)
Still, it's depressing. That means the "flow" will always go in the direction of who is in the most powerful postiion, not the most just action.

Thanks for putting it in these terms, though. The first step toward doing something about the problems is understanding how the system really works.

Kaiser Thrive just posted a letter from a person who is distraught about how Kaiser mistreated his parents. I've told similar stories about the experiences of my former landlord (99 years old at the time), and a while back I did a survey of random remarks on LiveJournal (see my links in the navbar). I really should do the LiveJournal survey again in light of Kaiser's kidney transplant issues. Anyway - what I'm saying is that there's very little connect between the problems patients are experiencing, the regulatorcy tools of the state, and Kaiser's willingness to addess the problems voluntarily. Something needs to be done to get Kaiser to take the existing feedback seriously.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2006-06-14 04:40 am UTC (link)
The Fed’s had to weigh in. The DMHC will do nothing, and Kaiser knows it. Why do you see all the agreements with Kaiser on the DMHC regulatory page, and never a fight? Kaiser has not fought the DMHC since the one million dollar assessment prior to Ehnes corrupt reign. It is a bogus cooperative game. Kaiser will save in the long run by cooperating, and the DMHC continues to act like every other state agency and will do absolutely nothing except milk the taxpayers.

It is sad to know you pay over and over again. You pay huge premiums for health insurance so Kaiser can thrive, you pay taxes so agencies such as the DMHC can do nothing, you pay for Arnold’s $150,000 donation from Kaiser so they can get away with taking away your rights and insuring the DMHC will do nothing about it, in the long run it is the taxpayer who pays for his own demise in this corrupt political system.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(Anonymous)
2006-06-15 02:54 pm UTC (link)
"...it is the taxpayer who pays for his own demise in this corrupt political system"

Amen!

This whole thing amounts to a public relations nightmare for Kaiser, nothing more. They could care less about the people they have harmed except to the extent that it affects public perception and their bottom line (as well as their bottoms!). Cooperation doesn't correlate with honesty or that Kaiser won't do its damndest to lie its way out of trouble. It only means that cooperation as a strategy has been determined to be the path of less destruction to Kaiser's image. It's all so calculated.

Taxpayers revolt! =)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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