Making good time!

The gist: Yogi Berra perhaps knows something about where Kaiser Permanente is now heading under George Halvorson: “We’re lost. But we are making good time.” Mr. Halvorson has taken to devoting his time to writing weekly email messages to remind Kaiser Permanente employees that he is still in charge, and his book tour has managed to sell a few dozen of his books. He may not be a great author, but he’s an even worse chief executive. Mr. Halvorson is moving Kaiser Permanente further and further away from the principles of Dr. Sidney Garfield, and he has nearly stripped the organization of any semblance of charitable motive or mission. If the response to Mr. Halvorson’s book is any indication, we all now recognize him for the buck naked emperor he is. It’s unfortunate that the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan board of directors doesn’t seem to know or care what’s going on at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.

The whole story: You might have noticed that George Halvorson recently wrote a new book. You might also have noticed that Mr. Halvorson has yet again been wasting Kaiser Permanente member resources to try and promote his (latest) new book! Thankfully, all that hard work has paid off. Mr. Halvorson’s book has landed at the impressive spot of 36,024 on the Amazon Bestseller List. In doing my part to help the cause of promoting Mr. Halvorson’s plan of unaffordable (but) mandatory healthcare for all, here’s a link to the page where you can purchase the book. (Thankfully, Amazon also sells matches, so in case of a power outage, Health Care Reform Now! should be good for something.)

Charles Andrews over at Monthly Review is taking a critical eye to Mr. Halvorson’s supposed “leadership” of Kaiser Permanente, too. Writes Andrews, sarcastically: “Certainly, Kaiser executives are not of a non-profit mind. Kaiser chief executive officer George Halvorson takes around $2 million a year…” (Which would be about enough to cover at least a thousand poor California kids, in case that matters.) Mr. Andrews goes on to call Mr. Halvorson’s plan out for what it is: “phony health reform.”

The truth is, with membership stagnant, Mr. Halvorson’s only hope for holding onto his job much longer would be a windfall of millions of new members through mandatory health coverage. Hiding Kaiser Permanente’s true financial picture behind leasebacks and self-insurance schemes and ever-higher premiums can only last so long. What a sad state George Halvorson will be leaving Kaiser Permanente in.

Finally, an update: Baby Andrew Balaka-Long has finally been transfered from Kaiser Permanente to the neonatal intensive care unit at San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital, after a DMHC physician reviewer and a judge had ordered Kaiser Permanente to transfer the baby to a “better-equipped” hospital. The baby’s transfer comes “weeks” after his parents first requested the transfer, precious weeks for severely premature Baby Andrew. Once again, Dr. Garfield must be rolling in his grave. All of this so so George Halvorson’s “financial leadership” of Kaiser Permanente could look a little better than it should.