Kaiser Permanente -non profit tax exempt

The other day I found out that Kaiser, yet once again, is raising my insurance premiums, co-pay and prescription drug costs. All this while the wait lines in Kaiser hospitals are getting longer and it takes literally months to get an appointment with a specialist. To get an MRI you have to wait at least two months. And most of the time you are at the mercy of so called nurse practioner (NP) -if she were good enough to 'act' like a doctor then why wasn't she good enough to go to medical school? One wonders.

Let us do a little exercise on Kaiser, shall we?

Operating revenues (December 31, 2002): $22.5 billion

In May 2004, Kaiser reported some mighty impressive numbers:

Quarterly profit of $301 million on revenue of $6.2 billion.

Hmmmm. So if Kaiser is non profit and tax exempt, where is all this profit going? It is surely not being put back for its members' benefit. Just go to any hospital and you will see i.e. if you are lucky enough to be allowed in Kaiser hospital. The primary job of NPs is to keep you out of the hospital. I wouldn't be surprised if they are incentivised to do so. The more patients they keep out of the hospital, the more bonus they get. All they need to ask you on the phone is what is your pain level on the scale of 1 to 10. Unless you lie and say that it is 9, forget about getting an appointment anytime soon.

According to USAToday: "At California-based Kaiser Permanente, whose executives oversee both an insurance plan and a system of 30 hospitals, outgoing Kaiser Foundation Hospital President Dale Crandall was paid a total of $7.4 million in 2002, reflecting salary, deferred compensation, a bonus, retirement and a one-time payment for termination of his contract. George Halvorson, the new CEO, was paid $2.2 million in 2002."

To make things worse, Kaiser is an active participant in the outsourcing phenomena. It is outsourcing patients' medical data, including lab results and drugs being taken, members' personal information, including financial records and home addresses.

Under the holy umbrella of 'non profit' and while its executives are cashing seven figure checks, Kaiser is royally gouging its members -mostly people with stagnant incomes. It is amazing how we keep getting fucked from all different directions and yet manage to go through our days...