justen

A year ago, I had more than a few theories for what steps Kaiser Permanente needed to take to rebuild integrity and restore accountability at the organization. I kept most of my specific ideas quiet, though, because I recognized that I needed to focus on calling for broad and reasoned change and improvement, not necessarily on promoting only my ideas for change and improvement.

A year later, it’s much clearer that the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Board of Directors is, in fact, the very “rubber stamp” for George Halvorson that George Halvorson so vigorously claims it not to be. A senior Kaiser Permanente executive had a proven, verifiable, substantial, and significant conflict of interest in the signing of a $5 million contract that resulted in the selection of the primary vendor for what has become a $5 billion project. There is substantial evidence that there may have been other conflicts of interest, conflicts that have been terribly detrimental to Kaiser Permanente’s financial and clinical integrity. Instead of calling for an open, objective, and independent review of the matter, the Board of Directors stood by quietly while George Halvorson and Daniel Garcia covered their tracks.

It’s unfortunate that accountability and integrity can’t be rebuilt and restored from within our Board of Directors alone. I started working, several months ago, on a document to outline some of the many steps that must be taken to ensure that Kaiser Permanente moves again towards having a functioning governance system, a strong compliance infrastructure, and a renewed commitment to my colleagues and our members. The document, Kaiser Permanente: Rebuild, Restore, Renew won’t be a sort of map to those goals, but I hope it will be a useful tool that Kaiser Permanente physicians, caregivers, and members can use to continue to call for restored accountability and integrity from our Board of Directors.

As I’ve been working on this, I have, at many times, thought of the compelling ideas I’ve heard from others, at the meeting in San Francisco last spring from community members with a vested interest in seeing a renewed Kaiser Permanente, at the impromptu rally last summer on Sunset Boulevard, for the Sicko screening in front of the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. I know that many of you have ideas, and a real interest in seeing a better Kaiser Permanente, so please share your thoughts and ideas with me, and I’ll share as many of them as I can once Kaiser Permanente: Rebuild, Restore, Renew is complete.

It’s been a year, and while some things have changed for the better at Kaiser Permanente, far too much is the same: the Board’s contempt for integrity, the complete absence of accountability, and the crumbling commitment to our members. It might be another year, or more, before the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Board of Directors is either convinced or compelled to do its job, but I know, it will eventually have to. I hope, when I finish this document in the coming weeks, that it might be another tool, another step in seeing us to that goal.