Big Mega Kaiser News Review
Here's a quick review of recent Kaiser follies:

Mary Ann Thode, long time President of Kaiser's Northern California region, is the latest to take the fall for Kaiser's recent troubles. Hopefully anyone watching will realize a few executive resignations don't make up for all the people who DIED after being bumped from the kidney transplant list.

Kaiser is putting even more emphasis on sales and marketing. Kaiser has also been buffing up marketing in Hawaii. When is Kaiser going to give up on the not-for-profit charade?

Matthew Holt notes Kaiser was caught with its hand in the cancellation cookie jar and offers some context for one of the most horrific aspects of the current health care crisis. More on the possibility of State oversighe here.

An anonymous source pointed out that Kaiser bigwigs are involved in what amounts to money laundering for supposedly non-profit health care executives. The Connecticut Attorney General has sanctioned the "Healthcare Research and Development Institute, LLC," fined it $150,000, and forced its closure.
The supposed "Institute" would funnel large sums of money from companies to healthcare executives. Kaiser participants include Dr. Thomas Chapman, the only "independent" Kaiser Foundation Health Plan director remaining who was involved in the hiring of George Halvorson and Dr. Benjamin Chu, the Halvorson hand-picked president for Southern California. Apparently, executives like Dr. Chapman and Dr. Chu were given tens of thousands of dollars and put up in luxurious hotels to entertain business opportunities from the pay-for-play business executives.

If someone has any idea how much Dr. Chapman and Dr. Chu received, please let me know. One thing is for sure: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Board will actively ignore these ethical lapses, like they have the Halvorson-HealthPartners and "Compliance Officer" Garcia affairs.

That about wraps it up. Someone let me know if I left any important Kaiser news out.

Update: I left out this important article about how EMR "documentation" can easily turn into lying about the patient encounter. This is one of my biggest issues, and I hope more physicians will start to write about this issue. The EMR is not a panacea...in fact, it could amount to a lethal annihilation of patient rights.