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.
on Apr 15th, 2007 at 22:45
Why is Kaiser hiring these people who haven’t had a job recently?
on Apr 17th, 2007 at 01:38
BTW, Bruce Turkstra’s exit was announced today…effective April 30th.
on Apr 24th, 2007 at 13:56
Hi Justen.
Glad to see you’re still keeping this blog. Congratulations on getting your story in the WSJ! I know it’s NOT about press time for you, it’s about the issue; but, still, congrats are in order for helping bring the proper attention to this situation.
As for the BOD and their “hourly rate,” you should also factor in the time spent in between meetings. I don’t know the Kaiser BOD structure but I’d bet there are subcommittee meetings to attend, in-between meeting phone calls, reports to read, etc. So, in all fairness, the amount of time that they spend IN meetings is just a part of the overall, total time a BOD member spends serving.
Granted, that out of meeting time is probably STILL not a lot, if they’re only in meetings for 40 or less hours a year.
Keep up the good work. When will you turn your attention to the Liver Transplant debaucle that happened last year at Kaiser Northern Cal? Now there’s another story…..
on Apr 25th, 2007 at 12:55
You’re a courageous man — I’m proud of you — Dave
on Oct 23rd, 2007 at 10:24
[...] this year, we found out that Kaiser Permanente board members are making, on average, at least $124,000 for about 40 hours [...]
on Nov 13th, 2007 at 07:20
[...] hired and (surprise!) kept by Mr. Halvorson to manage the organization’s ethics department (amid much controversy). Although Mr. Garcia was an independent director when he hired George Halvorson, he is now [...]
on Jan 6th, 2008 at 02:27
[...] hired and (surprise!) kept by Mr. Halvorson to manage the organization’s ethics department (amid much controversy). Although Mr. Garcia was an independent director when he hired George Halvorson, he is now [...]