George Halvorson today announced that Jenny Ming has been appointed to the Boards of Directors for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. Ms. Ming effectively replaces Robert Ridgley, who left the Board early last year before the end of his term. Mr. Ridgley had been chair of both the Board’s finance and audit committee and governance and compliance committee. Under Halvorson, the Board has seen unprecedented turnover, and, as such, the organization no longer discloses the resignation or retirement of directors, and, instead, only publicizes the vacancy when it is filled.
In fact, with Mr. Ridgley’s departure from the Board last year, the appointment of every member of the Board has been approved by Mr. Halvorson, with the exception of Daniel Garcia and Thomas Chapman. Such turnover is unprecedented in the history of Kaiser Permanente, and the fact that a near total replacement of the board occurred in just barely four years is a remarkable testament to what former officer J. Clifford Dodd referred to as the “unwinding and resetting” of the Board of Directors.
The news that Ms. Ming had been appointed as a director came without any accompanying statement from the Board regarding Mr. Garcia and Dr. Chapman. Mr. Garcia’s handling of the HealthConnect “investigation” last fall brought to light his questionable history in Los Angeles politics. Dr. Chapman’s role in the HRDI scandal was recently uncovered.
The truth is, I learned firsthand last fall how ineffective our Board of Directors is at providing guidance and governance to our organization. My personal conversations with board members and my observations of their workings (or lack thereof) has made it unfortunately clear to me that the “unwind and reset” project Mr. Halvorson and Mr. Dodd set out to implement five years ago has been all to terribly effective.
Update. Based on IRS 990 filings for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, it’s more lucrative than ever to be a Kaiser Permanente Board member. In 2002, the year in which George Halvorson became chairman, the average outside director who served more than half their term was paid $56,670 for their time. By 2004, when Project Unwind and Reset was fully underway, the average payment had more than doubled to $123,813! Considering Kaiser Foundation Health Plan board members meet for barely 40 hours per year, that’s a very charitable hourly rate of $3,095. In case you were wondering, Mr. Halvorson himself only made a paltry $1,805 per hour. Now, remember, this is a not-for-profit organization.
