As a current Kaiser patient who will be leaving during open enrollment, these workers are 100% correct. Kaiser has become out of touch with staff and patients and cares more about profits. it's so...
As a current Kaiser patient who will be leaving during open enrollment, these workers are 100% correct. Kaiser has become out of touch with staff and patients and cares more about profits. it's so much cheaper to just give a pill to a patient than actually spend time talking to them and doing actual diagnostic medicine.
My own personal anecdotes are awful enough, but there are entire legal websites dedicated to lack of timely medical care from Kaiser, especially in mental health, but it's becoming organization-wide. They seem to have taken Covid as a reason to wreak more havoc on their patients while they should have been getting back to normal operations. Their cost-cutting measures have caused many patients irreparable medical harm.
As someone whose parent's cancer treatment is going to be delayed by the strike... We both fully support the strike. Kaiser has to treat their people better, and in their current state are a...
As someone whose parent's cancer treatment is going to be delayed by the strike...
We both fully support the strike. Kaiser has to treat their people better, and in their current state are a perfect example of how non-profit status doesn't inherently mean that they can't be run to the detriment of patients and employees.
Good for them! It's about time the American public reckon with how shitty they treat us. Can you believe that after COVID CMS reduced reimbursement 15% across the board? Most of us haven't gotten...
Good for them! It's about time the American public reckon with how shitty they treat us.
Can you believe that after COVID CMS reduced reimbursement 15% across the board? Most of us haven't gotten raises in years.
Kaiser Permanente had profits of > $2 billion in the most recent quarter, with a 3% operating margin. The words "not-for-profit" get stretched out of recognition in healthcare. Not-for-profits are...
Kaiser Permanente had profits of > $2 billion in the most recent quarter, with a 3% operating margin.
The words "not-for-profit" get stretched out of recognition in healthcare. Not-for-profits are expected to serve their communities first, without shareholders, and with exemptions from local, state, and Federal taxation. However, administrative overhead and executive pay are elevated to levels comparable to and exceeding for-profit organizations, which magically hides money. "Non-profit" or "not-for-profit" in the U.S. doesn't automatically mean services are less costly for patients.
For those not familiar, Kaiser Permanente has a different model than most corporate medical systems in the U.S. It's both an insurer and a health system - an "integrated managed care consortium". For many years, it was generally assumed that this alignment would provide better outcomes for patients - lower costs, less overtreatment, more insight into cost for value, etc. Historically, patients have benefitted from an emphasis on preventative care and the elimination of fee-for-service incentives. But Kaiser regularly gets dinged for understaffing and dumping patients with more complicated conditions out of the system.
Understaffing and higher labor costs are global, not just U.S., problems in healthcare. U.S. hospitals nationwide are still ~4% understaffed compared to pre-pandemic trends.
As a current Kaiser patient who will be leaving during open enrollment, these workers are 100% correct. Kaiser has become out of touch with staff and patients and cares more about profits. it's so much cheaper to just give a pill to a patient than actually spend time talking to them and doing actual diagnostic medicine.
My own personal anecdotes are awful enough, but there are entire legal websites dedicated to lack of timely medical care from Kaiser, especially in mental health, but it's becoming organization-wide. They seem to have taken Covid as a reason to wreak more havoc on their patients while they should have been getting back to normal operations. Their cost-cutting measures have caused many patients irreparable medical harm.
As someone whose parent's cancer treatment is going to be delayed by the strike...
We both fully support the strike. Kaiser has to treat their people better, and in their current state are a perfect example of how non-profit status doesn't inherently mean that they can't be run to the detriment of patients and employees.
Good for them! It's about time the American public reckon with how shitty they treat us.
Can you believe that after COVID CMS reduced reimbursement 15% across the board? Most of us haven't gotten raises in years.
Kaiser Permanente had profits of > $2 billion in the most recent quarter, with a 3% operating margin.
The words "not-for-profit" get stretched out of recognition in healthcare. Not-for-profits are expected to serve their communities first, without shareholders, and with exemptions from local, state, and Federal taxation. However, administrative overhead and executive pay are elevated to levels comparable to and exceeding for-profit organizations, which magically hides money. "Non-profit" or "not-for-profit" in the U.S. doesn't automatically mean services are less costly for patients.
For those not familiar, Kaiser Permanente has a different model than most corporate medical systems in the U.S. It's both an insurer and a health system - an "integrated managed care consortium". For many years, it was generally assumed that this alignment would provide better outcomes for patients - lower costs, less overtreatment, more insight into cost for value, etc. Historically, patients have benefitted from an emphasis on preventative care and the elimination of fee-for-service incentives. But Kaiser regularly gets dinged for understaffing and dumping patients with more complicated conditions out of the system.
Understaffing and higher labor costs are global, not just U.S., problems in healthcare. U.S. hospitals nationwide are still ~4% understaffed compared to pre-pandemic trends.
tl;dr It's a good time for a strike at Kaiser.