July 4th, 2011
In the news: Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in a new game – transparency
Editorial page editorial, July 1, 2011 – The Salinas Californian
Since its first official meeting decades ago, the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital board of directors has operated mostly out of public view. This comfort zone has served the board well — until recently.
Now that assorted controversies have thrust the SVMH board into the public spotlight, it behooves board members to keep the public district hospital’s business in the public eye.
Questionable board actions came to light in April when media reports disclosed that recently retired CEO Sam Downing received nearly $5 million in lump-sum payouts approved by the board, in addition to his annual pension of $150,000. Those payouts are well above what executives in comparable positions have received. In the midst of hospital cutbacks, including the layoffs of hundreds of employees, news of Downing’s windfall raised public outrage and questions about board spending. Adding to suspicion about the payout was the way it was structured so as not to trigger Internal Revenue Service attention. What the board did was legal, but secretive and unbefitting a board that reports, ultimately, to voters. Revelation of the payout led to the state Legislature appointing an auditor for the district. The auditor’s report is expected by year’s end.
July 1st, 2011
Fact check: the truth behind SEIU’s big claims at Tenet
Dear Brothers and Sisters, You may have read SEIU’s recent claims to have won “raises of up to 18% over three years” at nine California Tenet-owned hospitals. Like most everything SEIU tells healthcare workers, those claims don’t match the facts. According to SEIU’s signed Tentative Agreements : The wage scale at Tenet is frozen for the first […]
July 1st, 2011
In the news: editorial in support of AB 52
Nonprofit Insurers: Reaping Profits at the Expense of the Consumer
by Wendell Potter, from the Huffington Post
Nowhere are health insurers working harder to thwart reforms that could save consumers billions of dollars than in California. One measure they are especially determined to kill is a bill that would give state regulators the authority to reject rate increases that were excessive or discriminatory.
The California Assembly passed a bill to do just that earlier this month over the intense opposition of insurers, including the state’s biggest supposedly nonprofit health plans: Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente.
June 29th, 2011
San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser raising rates for 300,000 subscribers
San Francisco Chronicle: By Victoria Colliver Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Kaiser Permanente plans to raise rates more than 10 percent starting Friday for about 300,000 Californians enrolled in plans offered through small businesses. Kaiser officials said the increases average 10.7 percent, although a consumer group and a labor organization said the hikes exceed 17 percent […]